CBS INTERACTIVE MUSIC GROUP PRESENTS “LIVE ON LETTERMAN” WEBCAST WITH JOHN MAYER, THURSDAY, NOV. 19TH PRESENTED EXCLUSIVELY BY AMERICAN EXPRESS
Following its successful event with Tim McGraw, the “Live on Letterman” series returns with seven-time GRAMMY® Award-winning artist John Mayer. The “Live on Letterman” webcast concert, presented exclusively by American Express from the Ed Sullivan Theater on Thursday, Nov. 19, follows the taping of Mayer’s appearance on the LATE SHOW with DAVID LETTERMAN. During the concert, Mayer will be performing songs from his fourth studio album, Battle Studies, as well as some of his most well-known hits.
John Mayer's Battle Studies will be released on November 17th, 2009 on Columbia Records. The album was co-produced by John Mayer and Steve Jordan and debuts three years after his critically acclaimed 2006 album, Continuum. Incorporating the warmth, melodies and simplicity of 70's and 80's California rock/pop, Battle Studies is a confessional, relaxed and liberated album recorded in a private home in California where Mayer lived and worked over the course of six months before wrapping at the famed Capitol Studios in Los Angeles.
"I approach music like a director doing a period piece," says Mayer. "Where Continuum was R&B and Soul, Battle Studies was written with the timelessness of Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac and Neil Young in mind. The melodies and message are concise and from-the-gut with the efficiency of simplicity."
This CBS Interactive Music Group event will be promoted across and broadcast on several CBS assets, as the concert will be streamed on the LATE SHOW website at CBS.com (www.cbs.com/late_night/late_show) that evening at approximately 8:00 PM, ET/5:00 PM, PT, with extensive coverage on-air and online provided by several CBS RADIO stations in major markets across the country. Additionally, live and on-demand video of the concert will be available on CBS properties including Last.fm, mp3.com, TV.com, etonline.com and theinsider.com, as well as the CBS Television Station websites, among others.
This exclusive performance is the fifth time the LATE SHOW has used the historic Ed Sullivan Theater as a concert venue – Pearl Jam performed a live webcast concert for the LATE SHOW and CBS.com on May 4, 2006, Elvis Costello and the Imposters did one on May 14, 2007, Paul McCartney performed from atop the Ed Sullivan Theater marquee during his webcast concert on July 15, 2009, and Tim McGraw participated in a “Live on Letterman” webcast event Oct. 12, 2009.
Additionally, Mayer’s LATE SHOW appearance will be broadcast that same night, Thursday, Nov. 19 (11:35 PM-12:37 AM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. In addition to his performance on the Thursday broadcast, Mayer will perform with Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra throughout the show.
An acclaimed guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and collaborator, Mayer has sold nearly 12.5 million albums worldwide. He will embark on a North American tour in support of Battle Studies, currently being planned for early 2010.
Biography
"After making his introduction as a sensitive, acoustic-styled songwriter on 2001's Room for Squares, John Mayer steadily widened his approach over the subsequent years, encompassing everything from blues-rock to adult contemporary in the process. Arriving during the tail end of teen pop's heyday, he crafted pop music for a more discerning audience, spiking his songcraft with jazz chords and literate turns of phrase. The combination proved to be quite popular, as Room for Squares went triple platinum before its follow-up release, Heavier Things, arrived in September 2003. Mayer continued to retool his sound with each album, however, moving beyond the material that had launched his career and adopting elements of rock, blues, and soul. Moreover, he partnered with legends of several genres, making guest appearances on albums by Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton, and B.B. King, while touring alongside jazz icon Herbie Hancock. Mayer also retained enough pop/rock foundation to continue his reign of the charts, making him one of the decade's most popular songwriters." - AMG
Taylor Swift made her second appearance as a musical guest and her first ever as the host of Saturday Night Live on November 7th!. The result was the finest episode of the long-running late-night series so far this season (which, to be fair, has been pretty uneven). Sometimes the cast will wear kid gloves around non-actors, but Swift obviously delivered on her promise on being game for anything, as she was in most every segment on the show. Rarely has a performer worked so hard, and she was rewarded for it with a handful of big laughs and torrents of applause.
