Featured Artist: John Mayer

Over the past ten years, John Mayer has become one of music businesses most recognizable figures. He is a seven-time Grammy award winner and has released four studio albums.

Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1977, Mayer first became interested in guitar at age thirteen and modeled his style after the late Stevie Ray Vaughn.

By seventeen, John was playing in clubs and by nineteen he moved to Boston, Massachusetts to study at The Berkelee College of Music.

At Berkelee he met Clay Cook, a Georgia native who helped cultivate John’s abilities as a songwriter (together they wrote “No Such Thing” and “83”). After only one year at Berkelee, John and Clay moved to Atlanta, started an acoustic band, and played gigs in and around the Atlanta area.

By 1998, John and Clay parted ways and a year later, Mayer released his first studio album, Inside Wants Out in September 1999.

From there, John’s career took off. In mid-2000, he was signed to Columbia Records and began work on his first LP Room for Squares.

Room for Squares featured his first Grammy winning song “Your Body is A Wonderland” and other popular hits such as “No Such Thing” and “Why Georgia”.

By 2005, he had released two full studio albums and won three Grammys.  Around that time, Mayer switched gears from being a more pop-based, acoustic guitar player, to playing more blues-centered guitar.

This switch initiated the start of the John Mayer Trio and the formation of the Continuum album recording sessions. Mayer’s switch of genre’s also opened up a lot of doors for collaboration with other artists such as Eric Clapton, BB King, and Herbie Hancock.

Released in late 2006, Contiuum proved to be the album that catapulted him to mega-success. With songs like “Gravity”, “Waiting on the World to Change”, “Stop This Train”, and “The Heart of Life” – the album achieved for John another two Grammy awards.

In November 2009, his fourth studio album, Battle Studies was released with mixed reviews. Three singles were released off the album, “Who Says”,“Heartbreak Warfare,” and “Half of My Heart” met with great commercial success.

John Mayer is currently up for three more Grammy awards: Best Pop Vocal Album (Battle Studies), Best Male Pop Vocal Performance (Half of My Heart), and Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance (Crossroads).

5 Facts You Didn’t Know About John Mayer:

– John has made quite a few appearances at stand-up comedy venues in New York City.

– For a little while, he had a column in Esquire magazine called “Music Lessons with John Mayer.”

– He is an avid watch and sneaker collector.

– He has designed guitars for the Martin brand.

– He has followed the martial art discipline, Krav Maga.