Aerosmith Guitar legend Joe Perry returns with his fifth solo release with Have Guitar, Will Travel, which offers nine original tracks (plus one cover song) of mostly guitar-smoldering rock that takes its’ roots from Aerosmith per-say, but also infuses a variety of textures that are "all Joe."
Produced by Perry and recorded in just 47 days from his Boston home studio dubbed The Boneyard, Joe and friends, which includes David Hull (Farrenheit, The Dirty Angels) on bass, Ben Tileston (TAB) and Marty Richards (Duke Robillard, James Montgomery) on drums, and Paul Santo (Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne, Ringo Starr) on piano and Hammond organ, recorded around the clock within a live band setting in order to capture a loose energy that bleeds from the speakers like a guitar-puffing freight train rattling through your living room.
The opening (and first single form the CD) "We’ve Got A Long Way To Go" is a rock radio-friendly anthem that introduces a new vocalist brought into the fold known as Hagen, a German singer that Perry’s wife Billie happened to stumble across on Youtube, who certainly has a dynamic vocal range that can certainly reach the high register. Hagen also sings lead on two other songs, including the ballad "Do You Wonder" (lyrics penned by Billie) and "Scare The Cat", another high energy, up-tempo rocker. Perry takes over the lead vocals on the rest of the tracks, including a rollicking bar-room cover of an old Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac song called "Somebody’s Gonna Get (Their Head kicked In Tonight)", which truly shows that Joe and his new band are loose and having fun.
"Heaven And Hell" is another down-and-dirty rocker complete with cool distorted guitar intro and pending solo that blows the roof off the joint, while "No Surprise" has a heavy, raunchy feel in which Joe pulls out his patented guitar talk-box gadget, which he’s made famous over the years in Aerosmith’s live set during "Walk This Way" and "Sweet Emotion." The lone instrumental track (and arguably this reviewer's favorite part of any Perry solo effort) is "Wooden Ships", which Perry dedicates to one of his heroes, the late guitar legend Les Paul, is a chaotic groove filled with bending and biting solos and piercing high-ends, while bassist Hull chugs along underneath the said chaos.
"Oh Lord (21 Grams)" is a haunting number seemingly inspired from Perry’s drug-induced youth, demons he left behind long ago, while "Freedom" closes out the set, complete with up-tempo rhythms and another blistering guitar solo in which Perry which shows that despite all the rock-and-roll miles he's logged over the years, he still generates fresh ideas and an energy that remains infectious to his hard-core fans.
Produced by Perry and engineered by Pablo Arraya, other guest appearances include Boston-rock original Willie "Loco" Alexander on piano, Scott Meeder on drums and Glen McCarthy on assorted sound effects.
A Sound Review: Joe Perry's "Have Guitar, Will Travel"
Submitted by JEM on Tue, 12/22/2009 - 11:18.
