This award is presented to the artist; vocal and instrumental albums are considered in this category, as are hard rock and metal releases.
"Try!"-John Mayer Trio
(Aware/Columbia)
Billboard Album Review- "Try! John Mayer Trio Live in Concert"- November 26, 2005: There is no "Your Body Is a Wonderland" in this current incarnation of John Mayer. The jazz-trained artist celebrates his roots on this collection of songs he took on the road this fall with drummer Steve Jordan and bassist Pino Palladino. The result is a heavily blues- and jam-based effort with an incongruous AC feel. On cuts like "Who Did You Think I Was" and a cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Wait Until Tomorrow," Mayer's voice resembles Stevie Ray Vaughan's in all its non-offensive arches. As a guitarist, Mayer spreads his wings with "Out of My Mind" and a version of Ray Charles' "I Got a Woman." While "Try!" is brimming with talent, it's not consistently compelling, with slow, grown-up numbers like "Gravity" weighing the generally congenial album down.
