Aerosmith covers classic blues tunes
By Elysa Gardner
USA Today
Many musicians have paid their dues to play the blues, but few likely could describe the experience as colorfully as Steven Tyler.
Associated Press
"The blues are just a heightened sense of awareness of life's ups and downs, and things that a guy sees after a couple of hits of Jack Daniel's," Aerosmith's 56-year-old frontman says. "You know, you can have a shot of Jack and cry in your beer, or you can put it to music."
Joe Perry, left, and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith pose on the red carpet during The 2002 Billboard Music Awards.
Tyler's band has focused on the latter approach, more or less, for more than 30 years.
Though the singer and lead guitarist Joe Perry, 53, once got as much press for their indulgence in certain substances as their creative chemistry, it's their revved-up, blues-based style that has made them icons.
On Aerosmith's new CD, winkingly titled "Honkin' on Bobo" — more about that later — the longtime cohorts, now party animals in spirit only, let their roots show.
In the tradition championed by such other baby-boomer artists as Eric Clapton, Robert Palmer and John Mellencamp, the album features covers of some of the group's favorite blues nuggets, including "Road Runner," "Eyesight to the Blind," "I'm Ready" and "Baby Please Don't Go." (Perry, Tyler and producing partner Marti Frederiksen also wrote an original song, "The Grind.")
But despite their abiding affection for such material, Tyler and Perry are reluctant to categorize "Bobo" as a blues album.
"We're not traditionalists or blues crusaders who are trying to convert the world," Perry says. "We just wanted to make music that would convey some of the excitement we feel when we're playing live.
"Our last couple of records were very technically oriented, and we really wanted to make something more organic. So we didn't have any expectations when we were laying this all down; it was kind of free, just riffing and having a lot of fun playing."
One of the biggest challenges, Tyler says, was narrowing down the track list.
"We wanted to do 'House of the Rising Sun.' We did 'Louie Louie,' and some crazy stuff in the studio. But the cream definitely floated to the top. By the end, we realized the project was more about what songs we were relating to and which ones we do best. When we played them all back, it was, if I can toot my own horn, this fantastic rock 'n' roll album."
Like Perry, Tyler is eager to introduce Aerosmith's new versions of old classics to live audiences on the band's current tour, which wraps up June 24 in its home city, Boston. (On May 21, A&E will present "Aerosmith: A&E In Concert," which also will feature studio and other behind-the-scenes footage.)
