ST. PAUL, Minn. - When Jason Mraz set out to make his second album, he spent plenty of time ruminating over just what it means to be a songwriter. One of his teachers turned out to be Minneapolis' Dan Wilson.

"I met Dan through (fellow singer/songwriter) Rachael Yamagata," Mraz said during a phone interview. "I had heard a song they did together and thought it was rad. And I really loved Semisonic, so I reached out to him."

"The next time I was in town, I stayed at his house and slept in the attic," Mraz said. "I'm so intrigued to find out how singer/songwriters operate. I watched how he lives, how he raises his family and how he continues to work.

Two Mraz/Wilson collaborations made it onto the slyly titled "Mr. A-Z," the breezy funk of "Did You Get My Message?" ("He couldn't get a-hold of his baby sitter and my cell phone wasn't working - we were both worried about leaving messages") and the stately ballad "Song for a Friend."

"Mr. A-Z" consolidates all the bits and pieces of Mraz's personality that made the onetime coffeehouse folkie's debut, "Waiting for My Rocket to Come," a million seller. Once again, he marries his studied, flashy acoustic guitar work (a la the Dave Matthews Band) to tongue-twisting, groaningly clever lyrics (reminiscent of the Barenaked Ladies).

"I spent a year of my life thinking about this particular project," said Mraz. "In January 2004, I got into my truck and drove to Cody, Wyo. It was my first pilgrimage, out there in a cabin in the snow. I went back home, toured a bit, then went back to writing at a beach in Southern California, in the farmlands of Virginia.

"I recorded each song along the way, took them to my band and then gave them to (producer Steve Lillywhite). I told him this is where we were starting from, like a map. It really wasn't labored. It was like taking baby steps."

Thanks to his considered musicmaking - along with some deft marketing - Mraz has found success with two strikingly different audiences. Teen girls love his pin-up looks, which he plays up even more by wrapping "Mr. A-Z" in a sleeve designed to look like a high school yearbook. Songs like "Geek in the Pink" - part underdog anthem, part smutty sex ode — and his nude spread for Jane magazine (with naughty bits hidden by a guitar) further endear him to that set.

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