Room for Squares [LP]

Personnel includes: John Mayer (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards, vibraphone, percussion); John Alagia (guitar, Hammond B-3 organ, percussion, bells); David Davidson, David Angel (violin); Kristin Wilkinson (viola); Carol Rabinowitz, Jon Catchings (cello); Brandon Bush (Wurlitzer piano, Fender Rhodes piano, Hammond B-3 organ, Mellotron); David LaBruyere (bass); Nir Z (drums, percussion, loops); Jerry Marotta (drums); Chris Fischer (congas); Clay Cook, Doug Derryberry (background vocals).
Recorded at Loho, New York, New York; Sunny Acre, Easton, Maryland; 33 & 1/3, Brooklyn, New York; Applehead, Woodstock, New York; Media Mix Studios, Nashville, Tennessee.
"Your Body Is A Wonderland" won the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.
John Mayer was nominated for the 2003 Grammy Award for Best New Artist.
Somewhere around the turn of the 21st century, guys like David Gray (who'd already been laboring in obscurity for quite a while) and Five For Fighting made it hip (and profitable) to be a sensitive singer-songwriter for the first time since the '70s. Along those lines, John Mayer appeals to the kind of youngsters who are embarrassed by their parents' Dan Fogelberg collection but equally turned off by vociferous gangstas and misanthropic heavy rockers. ROOM FOR SQUARES (whose very title, not to mention Mayer's studied regular-guy cover pose, bespeaks the revenge of the nerds) accordingly trades in acoustic guitar-based folk-rock tempered with just enough 21st-century freshness to keep its practitioner in the Billboard charts (and his listeners' hearts). That's not to say Mayer's music is calculated; he's got a real feel for melody and a distinctive lyrical style. He also managed to be in the right place at the right time, and that's the key to any pop success.