ICYMI: John Mayer Performs at SoCal Concert With Dallas Musicians

Last weekend, a show at the House of Blues Anaheim was a star-studded affair. It was a private party, celebrating the 40-year anniversary of Paul Reed Smith Guitars during National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) week in Los Angeles.

The Maryland-born Smith is a legendary guitar maker, building the PRS brand into the third-largest electric guitar manufacturer in the country. With its hundreds of guitars for sale, PRS has famously signed on a number of guitarist endorsements to produce signature guitar models.

Mark Lettieri is among those endorsements. The frontman of the iconic Dallas-based collective Snarky Puppy was invited to perform at the 40th anniversary show.

“When I realized what incredible instruments they were I couldn’t put them down,” Lettieri says of his favorite guitar brand.

In 2021, Lettieri and PRS collaborated on the Fiore model guitar. The Fiore, which means "flower" in Italian, was specially designed to be a blank canvas of sorts in which a guitarist's personality can bloom through a versatile sound ranging from rock to funk.

For the show, he brought along Revelers Hall Band keyboardist Daniel Porter and Funky Knuckles bassist Wes Stephenson. It would’ve been a great set on its own, but the event called on another PRS-endorsed guitarist, John Mayer.

Lettieri had played with Mayer before on a set with saxophonist Bob Reynolds, who also joined for the 40th anniversary show. Mayer was set to participate but couldn’t logistically bring his band along. The Dallas crew became the band, with Mayer fronting for four songs after the band performed two songs each with Randy Bowland and Phillip Sayce.

“We had about 30 minutes to rehearse with each artist,” says Porter. “During rehearsal we were all coming up with ideas about how we might be able to save stuff. John was honestly just letting Mark lead.”

The recorded live video shows the group performing “Vultures,” a Mayer original from 2006’s Continuum.

“I’ve been a fan of his music for a long time,” says Stephenson. “After hearing him at a small club in LA a few years back, I realized he is not only a great artist but also a great musician, in the purest sense of the word.”

Don’t be fooled by last night’s marathon Fire Aid concert. This sort of A-list music collaboration doesn’t happen every day.

“You think of John as this sort of pop figurehead,” Lettieri says. “He’s really an incredible musician and a guitar geek like the rest of us.”