This week’s recording is from John Mayer’s summer tour with Brett Dennen and Colbie Caillat. It’s recorded by a taper with a microphone, so the sound quality isn’t perfect, but it’s surprisingly good. In addition to FLAC, the recording is also available as MP3 and Ogg Vorbis, or can be easily played in the onsite player.

John Mayer Live at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion on 2008-08-02

The show takes place in the hot Texas summer. It looks like a typical show from this summer tour having many songs off the latest album Continuum, but also lots of others, and the styles of the songs vary a lot.

The set starts with the radio hit Waiting on the World to Change, followed by Why Georgia. The two hit songs get the audience excited when the show takes a turn to a whole another direction. Next up is the old blues classic Crossroads. Another blues song is a very bluesy cover of Mercy, a new song by the Welsh singer-songwriter Duffy.

Another cover is Tom Petty’s Free Fallin’ of which John has a nice slow version. John is one of those singers who like to talk a lot on stage. That brings a pleasant, easy feeling to his shows.

I Don’t Trust Myself (With Loving You) is a great version with a long intro. Another long one is Wheel. In the middle of it John tells a story about his guitar, then teases U2’s ’80s hit I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, then goes back to Wheel.

Three John Mayer Trio songs – Good Love Is On the Way, Vultures and Gravity – find their way into the set (the last two also appeared on Continuum). The horn section in the band nicely brings color to the show.

Towards the end of the set, there’s Stitched Up – a jazzy tune that John cowrote with Herbie Hancock – and Belief. Gravity with Colbie Caillat closes the set. It’s nice to hear a female voice on Gravity.

The encore starts with some beatboxing that leads to Vultures. After that the show ends with Say, a song that was still unreleased at the time. The audience just seems to love the last last two songs, which is no wonder.

If you like this one, there’s also many other recordings of John Mayer from this summer tour, as well as many others, such as his blues shows. And what’s even better is the new release Where the Light Is. It features a concert with three sets: first an acoustic one, then one with John Mayer Trio, and the last one with his touring band.

Where the Light Is available as DVD, Blu-ray, CD or digital download.