Single version of “I Am John Mayer” streaming now!
“I Am John Mayer (Single Version)” is streaming now! Try before you buy, then pre-order the album! The single version is only the first half of the song — we’re not giving it all away to our tech overlords until maybe Christmas, maybe never. So listening to the single version is like stopping Forrest Gump after he meets Jenny in our nation’s capital. You would miss the shrimp boat thing, the “I was running” thing, and the whole Lieutenant Dan redemption arc! Get a link to stream/download the whole song immediately when you pre-order the album on vinyl, CD, or digital download now. ❤️🏆
I Am John Mayer: NEW ALBUM Pre-Order!
Hello! I am very excited to share that the album I have been working on since January is finished and available for pre-order now: Vinyl, Compact Disc, and Digital Download!
This one is particularly personal and special. It is called I Am John Mayer so it's sorta self-titled. It’s also the first one since North Star in 2018 that will materialize in physical media form: the vinyl and compact discs are being made right now! All pre-orders will receive a link to the making of documentary and the first single, “I Am John Mayer." A single version of this song will be streaming on Spotify/Apple/etc in a couple weeks, but it's just the first half. Our tech overlords may eventually have the whole song and possibly the whole album, but let's just keep it between us for now.
The most recent Audiode (85) is a collection of phone conversations with some of my favorite recording artist friends about their relationships to their own recordings. I found it quite enlightening and enjoyable to hear other people talk about that process as I get ready to part with this one. To be really honest with you, this moment right here is very vulnerable. I’ve been working on making this all year. I made it with a band of musicians who are also some of my best friends in a fancy studio. I stepped far outside of my comfort zone to work with a new team of engineers. I have spent so much time and treasure to finish it…and now it’s going to be heard or ignored and heard later or listened to and dismissed or enjoyed and everything in between.
Also, I have to acknowledge that in light of current events, this all feels quite ridiculous. But writing songs and recording them and singing them is how I am most authentically myself during this particular existence so it is what it is. My friend Robert said it best in that Audiode so I’ll quote him here:
“At the time you are that person and you know that’s the best you can do and later on you think jeez…all right, well I’m called to do this, I have to do it to be me, this is what I want to do, and if that’s the way I sound, well, I’m gonna have to roll with that. That’s the option available.”
Sincerely,
John
Central Coast Travelogue
Central Coast Travelogue! VLOG?!? Very fun and good and pretty and productive and successful mini tour. Wrote two new songs too! One co-write with Charlie Wolf (The Small Calamities) and one about being a dada on the mid-career road. ❤️🏆
Doing Stuff Without A Car: Taking Three Buses To A Gig.
"Johnny Elliott" takes a total of six buses (three there and three back) to a gig. Thank you to SFMTA and SamTrans for the rides!
Doing Stuff Without A Car: Going To The Mall.
Exciting episode: an altercation with suburban mall security, a single version of The War On Cars song streaming now, and our first sponsor! Vote for Suzanimal for the High Sierra Music Festival band contest by May 9th! ♥️🏆
May 3rd at The Chapel
Beautiful space in San Francisco opening for local legend Sean Hayes. Really looking forward to this one. A bunch of new songs and maybe an old one? Tickets.
Boy, I’ll tell you. I’ve been on a little “digital detox” from social media since April 1 and whoa. Signing back in to the Meta platforms to promote this show does not feel good. It is a form of mind control. I’ve been slowly pulling away from those spaces for awhile, deleted my personal Facebook page in 2015, and I’m going to take this experience as a clear indication to continue in that direction.
Ways to stay connected? This website and weblog is always going to be here. I do like YouTube despite the obvious mind control and nefarious dealings over there. And signing up on my e-mail list is the best way to stay connected and has been since the Bush administration. Go here and scroll down.
Oh and Substack now I guess too? But probably not? Time will tell.
Coming home from a gig.
The exciting conclusion of recent Dollar Car Rental odyssey includes fascinating revelation of paradigm shift that occurs outside of a car + a delicious detour to Flourcraft Bakery! ♥️🏆 (please note: you return Dollar Car Rental cars to Hertz at this location because all bets are off and chaos reigns).
Going to a gig.
You have to use the right tool for the job. Even singer/songcyclists drive occasionally. Tire dust is the primary cause of microplastics and because EVs are heavier than gas cars they create more microplastic pollutants so lots going on here that is upsetting and the result of a series of awful collective choices, but on the plus side the show at Little Saint was wonderful with tremendous hospitality, excellent sound, and exceptional food (lion’s mane buffalo “wings” ?! 😍🏆). Stay tuned for part 2…
Los Angeles Benefit Show.
It was an honor to play the KC Turner Presents benefit show for Los Angeles at Hopmonk Novato. Many inspiring performances by many artists + beautiful sold out gathering of community + $30,000 raised for the LA Fire Department Foundation. Megan Slankard’s cover of “America” just broke me wide open. I really felt the weight of this moment in the USA for the first time and began a grieving process of sorts. European friends are asking why we’re not protesting. Some are. Some are in shock. Some are stoked. But many are simply grieving. The stages are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. These stages are not linear. And we all continue to look for America. ♥️
“I’m Not Going Anywhere This Christmas”
“I’m Not Going Anywhere This Christmas” is hereby unleashed upon the streamers! Stream away on Apple Music, Tidal, Spotify, YouTube, everywhere else and still on Bandcamp! Add it to your holiday playlists please and every year grant this little tune two minutes in between Wham and Bing and Mariah and all those other ones and face unafraid the plans that you made! 🎄🏆♥️ You can also download the chords and lyrics and play along at home!
New original Christmas song!
Here is a brand new, very hot off the presses, original Christmas song! This might be my fastest turnaround ever from recording to release: we made it the day after Thanksgiving — just a week ago! “I’m Not Going Anywhere This Christmas” is for all the introverts out there this extroverted holiday season. I hope it slides somewhere into your holiday playlist and becomes part of your seasonal soundtrack ritual. I am wishing you and yours a peaceful, quiet, tranquil holiday season with it. “I’m Not Going Anywhere This Christmas” will be streaming on all the streamers in a couple weeks, but for now it only lives on Bandcamp…and it’s Bandcamp Friday! It’s $1 or more or free. There’s a link in my story or you can look for it on the internet or via the link in my bio or many other ways. Collaborators: recorded by Matt McDavid at 2200 Studios in Sausalito, CA (I’m playing the piano that was used on “Don’t Stop Believing”), mastered by Adam Ayan, Band of Supervisors member Oscar Westesson on upright bass, and cozy artwork by Tammy Quinelle. Merry Christmas! 🎄✨
“Left on Lincoln” in the NY Times!
It’s Election Day here in the so-called United States of America. I have been actively working on hyperlocal transportation issues for four years now. We won Proposition J to get car-free JFK Promenade through Golden Gate Park in 2022 and today Proposition K is on the ballot to turn the Great Highway into a glorious oceanfront public recreation space. The NY Times covered the story and gave a shoutout to my ridiculously in-the-weeds song “Left on Lincoln.” The video is also fun. :)
Long Pause: “Off The Charts”!
The new collaboration album with Elam Blackman called “Off The Charts” is up on Bandcamp today! I think/hope we broke the sophomore album curse? We call this project Long Pause. The way it works is Elam sends me occasional voice memos of mostly spoken word bits with some songs sprinkled in. When the spirit moves me, I create ambient music to accompany his poetry. Eventually these stack up enough and we have an album. I love Elam’s words so much. They are a meditative/ASMR antidote to the chaos and noise. I also love Elam. Old friends. Back in 2012 we both found ourselves washed ashore in different spots of the San Francisco Bay, twisted wrecks, long relationships over in other places, trying to continue somehow. I would take the ferry to his spot, he’d pick me up, beat me very badly at Boggle or Scrabble, and take me back to the ferry. Somewhere in there healing happened too. To quote Elam toward the end of this recording: “Darkness at the window, I don’t want to tell nobody / That would be cruel if I was gone without goodbye / Darkness passes and stays and says not to tell / You walk through, I tell you just how dark it gets before the light breaks through.”
“50 States With 50 Shapes.”
The computers see us as insane, irrational creatures obsessed with food? One of the hit songs on my new hit album is called “50 States With 50 Shapes.” Here is a fun compilation of all the state shout-outs with computer art impressions of each one from an article I found on the internet that made me genuinely laugh harder than I have in a very very long time. I hope this brings you joy. The computers apparently do not consider diversity in their casting decisions. Montana and Wyoming win in a long shot. How did your state fare?
“In the 80s in America.”
The fifth episode on the ongoing quadrennial series “It Doesn’t Matter Why It Is, It Doesn’t Matter If It’s Wrong” is hereby inflicted upon the world today! The full album and the rest of the series is only on Bandcamp. Stream all you like over there for free and/or get two secret bonus tracks if you name your own price and buy it. And thank you! And here is the third video from the album for the song “In the 80s in America.” It was really fun to write and record this one. I hope you have fun listening to it.
“I Still Like Obama.”
The second single and video from the new album is “I Still Like Obama,” which premiered on Americana Highways!