Open Letter to John Mayer

Hey John,

Dude, stop. Just...stop trying to be a bluesman. You're not. You're a pop singer. Yeah, okay, you can play the guitar, and your technical grasp may amaze those who've never heard real blues, but seriously, you're pretty bland. You do cookie-cutter, by-the-numbers blues tunes, you try to sound like Stevie Ray Vaughn, and you think this'll make you a true bluesman. It doesn't. Everything about your music--whether you're trying to play the blues or anything else--is too processed and calculated to be real. It's inauthentic. You might impress the teeny-boppers who don't know any better, but you can't fool me. There's more to the blues than the notes you play or the words you sing, and you seem to think that paying lip service to the style is sufficient to create true blues music.

So. Go back to your DMB-clone pop. Leave the blues alone. Leave it to the people who actually put something true into the music. You'll be doing us all a favor.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Stevie Ray Vaughn & Double Trouble, "Look at Little Sister"