JOE PERRY-Sweetzerland Manifesto

Roman Records

Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry is quite an active musician. He has his band Aerosmith, makes with regularity a solo CD and has a hobby band called Hollywood Vampires with Alice Cooper and actor/musician Johnny Depp, who is the executive producer for this fourth solo effort (not counting the Joe Perry Project albums) of Perry. Depp also plays drums on a song and is one of the many guest musicians on this record. Joe Perry has recruited singers like Robin Zander (Cheap Trick), David Johansen (New York Dolls) and English veteran Terry Reid to share the vocals and he even sings himself on the old evergreen ,,Eve Of Destruction’’ that was a hit for Barry McGuire in the sixties. Even the sons of Joe got involved with the record as the Perry Boys perform the instrumental track ,,Spanish Sushi’’. As weird as the CD title sounds sometimes just as weird is the musical direction that Joe Perry has chosen on this CD. Do not expect material in the Aerosmith style. The guitarist has chosen for a mix between old fashioned and rather traditional blues rock and some more experimental stuff like CD opener ,,Rumble In The Jungle’’ which is not a remake of the 1974 boxing fight between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali, but a weird instrumental with African rhythms. I must say that after a few weeks on hearing this record I quite like it. Especially the more swampy blues songs like ,,Sick & Tired’’, ,,Haberdasher Blues’’, ,,I’m Going Crazy’’ and ,,Won’t Let Me Go’’ thrive on great riffs that only Joe Perry can write and play while the singers Johansen and Reid really sound like their age. Old and raw but full of expression and determination. Yes, ‘Sweetzerland Manifesto’ may not sound like you might have expected, but Joe’s guitar work is just excellent and the songs are ‘traditional’ perhaps but they have this deep rawness that you do not hear that often these days. For folks with a sense for musical adventure ‘Sweetzerland Manifesto’ could be a welcome addition to the music collection.