John Mayer – The Village Sessions (2007)

The Village Sessions by John Mayer

Biography
John Clayton Mayer (born October 16, 1977) is an American guitarist and singer-songwriter. Grew up in Connecticut, and his interest in music mostly involved listening to pop music on the radio. At the age of 13, that all changed when a neighbor gave him a Stevie Ray Vaughan tape. His discovery of the blues prompted Mayer to pick up the guitar. In less than two years time, Mayer was impressing the audiences at the local blues clubs. Mayer came to the realization that he wanted to work more on his songwriting skills and less on becoming a guitar virtuoso.

Toward this end, the now 19-year-old Mayer enrolled at Boston’s Berklee College of Music. He wouldn’t remain at Berklee for long as his interest was in playing music and not studying it. In 1998, at a friend’s urging, he moved to Atlanta. Atlanta proved to be right place for Mayer to showcase his songwriting and performing skills. In 1999, he released his first album, Inside Wants Out, which consisted primarily of acoustic solos and several tracks recorded with a full band.

A stellar performance at Austin’s (Texas) South By Southwest Music Festival, in March of 2000, drew the attention of several labels. Mayer signed with Columbia records and by the fall of that year he was in the studio laying down tracks. In September of 2001, Mayer released Room For Squares and was backed up in the studio by bassist David LaBruyere and drummer Nir Zidkiyahu. Mayer toured in support of the album, which debuted on the 200 Album chart. Mayer also landed the song “83″ on the Serendipity soundtrack.

In 2002, Room For Squares would hit No. 1 on the Heatseekers chart for a three week run, and remained on the Billboard 200 album chart throughout 2002, reaching the top 15. Also in 2002, Inside Wants Out was re-released. Upon its release Mayer had two albums in the top 25 on the album chart.

In 2003, Mayer landed two Grammy nominations and would take home the award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. Any Given Thursday, a live album, was released early in the year, a home video version was also released. Late in the summer of ’03 Heavier Things, Mayer’s next studio release, debuted in the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200. He toured throughout the year and late into 2004. In 2005 he teamed up with bassist Pino Palladino and drummer Steve Jordon to form the John Mayer Trio. The threesome toured and released Try! John Mayer Trio Live In Concert late in the year.

About The Album “The Village Sessions”
Collaborators include John Mayer Trio members Steve Jordan and Pino Palladino, along Ben Harper, Robbie McIntosh (of The Pretenders), and Ricky Peterson (of Mayer’s touring band and former producer for Prince albums). The six-song Extended Play (EP) contains acoustic and alternate versions of songs found on Mayer’s third studio album, Continuum, and his Trio’s live album, Try!. Mayer co-produced the album with engineer Chad Franscoviak, also his live engineer and roommate.

Notable is that though the EP was released at about the same time as Mayer?s single, “Gravity,” the song itself does not appear on this EP, much like Mayer’s singles “Daughters” and “Bigger Than My Body” were not on his live album, As/Is, despite being the current singles at the time of its release. Like the As/IsThe Village Sessions series before it, was made available on iTunes, on May 15, 2007.

Belief (Live)

The Village Sessions album tracklists are:

01
Waiting On The World To Change (Ben Harper version)
02
Belief (acoustic version)
03
Slow Dancing In A Burning Room (acoustic version)
04
Good Love Is On The Way (acoustic version)
05
I’m Gonna Find Another You (acoustic version)
06
In Repair (acoustic version)

Buy the CD album The Village Sessions

Full Mp3 Downloads The Village Sessions

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