Ah, here's an artiste coming into his own.
While he may have emerged a music channel favourite with syrupy songs like Your Body Is A Wonderland, the guitar-slinger has been drawing comparisons with six-string gods like the late great Stevie Ray Vaughan. Not without reason, because his recent collaborations include an army of giants: Blues immortals Buddy Guy and B B King, rock god Eric Clapton, and jazz pioneers Herbie Hancock and John Scofield.
No wonder Rolling Stone magazine thinks Mayer is one of the new guitar heroes. Still sceptical? Go check him out on YouTube.
And who else should you watch out for at Live Earth?
Just four perfomers? That's not all by any stretch. The total number of artistes runs into three digits. There's Kasabian (who are being compared with the Primal Scream, which can't be too bad), Red Hot Chilli Peppers (nice in the studio, but terrible live), the ever-queen Madonna, former Soundgardener and Audio Slave Chris Cornell, Smashing Pumpkins (too bad they didn't stick to farming), R&B star Alicia Keys (what passes as R&B now, anyway), the funky Black Eyed Peas, Pussycat Dolls (nice with the mute on), etcetera etcetera etcetera.
But, hey, I am just old school. You may not be!
Image: Guitarist John Mayer performs at the 49th Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, February 11, 2007. Photograph: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images
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