Okay, look, I am not saying Mayer sucks or anything and nobody is telling you to not like him. He isn't for me. That soft and airy voice is not my style. I can't get past the coffee house goon-ness of Waiting for The World To Change and Gravity. A little too, um, "delicate", for me. He comes off a little light in the loafers. I also get tired of the social climbing aspect of him chasing nothing but high profile women. And then the whining when Taylor Swift wrote a song describing what a d-bag he is.....

He sounds to my ears like he is trying to be Dave Matthews with the nasal whining tone and phrasing, and we already have one of those. Yes, Mayer is a fine player and if you like the hippy-esque writing about how "we need to make the world a better place" (which has been done to death) he is fine. I am just saying that he would never get my ticket or CD dollar. I'd buy a whole lot of things before him. I have a friend telling me how great Joe Bonnamassa is. Well, okay, that's fine. Blues players like that are everywhere, including local bars in Cleveland. There are about 5 here in town that I'd toss in the hopper with any of the national guys. Mayer has a lot of "pretty boy" going for him and that helped.

This is not a "Can you do any better" argument. Remember, "better than me" doesn't make someone anything. I suck anymore. 20 years ago that was not true, but all that time away... The thing that DIDN'T happen is that I didn't lose my ear or my knowledge. I just lost my physical skills, and the arthritis in my hands keeps me from getting them back. I physically can't really grip a guitar neck any more, and I have little agility on the keyboards or sax anymore. Sad to say, but this may have to be my last year of playing in the reunion shows. When it gets to where I am hurting the band, I am out, and one more year of joints being affected by the arthritis may be huge.