John Mayer Celebrates David Ryan Harris’ Birthday In Austin

John Mayer played his first of two consecutive Sob Rock Tour concerts at the Moody Center in Austin last night. Mayer led the crowd through two versions of “Happy Birthday To You” in honor of his longtime touring guitarist, David Ryan Harris, who turned 54 on Tuesday.

Mayer’s non-COVID-affected shows on the run have been following a similar format of full-band sequence followed by acoustic interlude and another full-band section to end the main set. Wednesday’s concert in Austin followed the same format.

Sob Rock’s “Last Train Home” was played to open in Austin as it has every night this tour since February. Mayer then turned to 2006’s Continuum for “Belief” before returning to Sob Rock with “Shot In The Dark.” The rest of the first full-band segment included performances of “Who Says,” “Changing,” “I Don’t Trust Myself (With Loving You)” and “Helpless.”

John Mayer launched the acoustic portion of last night’s concert with solo takes on oldies “Neon” and “In Your Atmosphere.” Next, he brought out David Ryan Harris to accompany him on a cover of “Free Fallin'” by Tom Petty. First, he explained the previous day was DRH’s birthday and asked the audience to help sing “Happy Birthday To You.” He told the crowd people tend to sing the song “way too high” and versions generally fall apart by the end. With that in mind, Mayer led takes on “Happy Birthday” at a low octave and one really high.

The full band returned after “Free Fallin'” to perform “I Guess I Just Feel Like” off Sob Rock. From there the group played The Search For Everything standout “Moving On And Getting Over” and classic “Your Body Is A Wonderland.” A change to the typical format came at the end of the main set when Mayer and keyboardist Greg Phillinganes played a bit of H.E.R.’s “Hold On” instrumentally as an intro to “Gravity.” John previously covered the 2021 H.E.R. single on TikTok.

The guitarist had another treat to start last night’s encore, as he responded to a sign in the crowd by obliging a request for “Walt Grace’s Submarine Test, January 1967.” Mayer was on acoustic to begin the encore and went electric for a show-closing “New Light.”

Watch John Mayer lead “Happy Birthday To You” in the Instagram clip below: