Joe Perry's "Have Guitar, Will Travel" Set For October 6th Release

Co-founding member, principal co-songwriter, lead guitarist and co-producer of Aerosmith, JOE PERRY, will release his fifth solo CD Have Guitar, Will Travel on Tuesday, October 6th.   The hard driving, ten-song, in your face, collection features Perry’s trademark rock and blues ferocity, as well as the CD’s first single, the blazing “We’ve Got A Long Way To Go,” set for release later this summer. Recorded this past spring at the BoneYard, Perry's state-of-the-art home studio, where Aerosmith’s Honkin’ On Bobo and Just Push Play were recorded, Have Guitar, Will Travel is entirely written and produced by Perry.

Still as scorching hot on guitar as he is preternaturally cool in his persona, Have Guitar, Will Travel is a departure for Perry in that the CD was conceived as a band recording.  From start to finish it took only forty-seven days to complete. "Making this record in such a short period of time gave us a chance to capture an energy and flow that was very different from the last record,” said Perry. “The way the players came together at a time when I had the music and lyrics in my head ready to go was pure synchronicity. The last record rocked, but this one rocks and then some.  I’m really proud of it.

“We’ve Got A Long Way To Go,” the CDs first single, showcases the voice of a young German singer known as Hagen, found completely by chance on YouTube by Joe’s wife Billie.  “I first called him from Cleveland when I went to perform at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Jam with Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Ron Wood, Flea and Metallica,” said Perry.  “It took several minutes to convince him that it wasn’t a prank call, but a true invitation to audition to sing on the CD.”  Hagen mans the microphone for five tracks, while Perry sings lead on four.  The remaining tenth song is an instrumental entitled “Wooden Ships.”   

In addition, Perry attracted an esteemed roster of some of the best players that the music world has to offer; bassist David Hull, who played with The Buddy Miles Band at 19 and was in the Joe Perry Project in the 80s, drummer Ben Tileston, a Boston University percussion graduate, who plays drums with two of Perry’s sons in TAB The Band, Paul Santo, whose played Hammond Organ/Pipe Organ with the likes of Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton and Ozzy Osbourne, drummers Scott Meeder and Marty Richards and Willie “Loco” Alexander, Boston’s “Godfather of Punk,” who was part of the Bostown sound of the band “the Bagatelle.”

A six-week Twitter search was conducted to find the CDs title.  The winner, out of nearly 2000 entries, was Joe Piscitelli, who used a play on the old CBS television program “Have Gun – Will Travel.”

The release of Have Guitar, Will Travel follows self-produced solo releases including Let The Music Do The Talking (1980), Once A Rocker, Always A Rocker (1983), I've Got The Rock 'N' Rolls Again (1981) and 2005’s Joe Perry, which received universal critical praise and earned Perry his first solo Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental Song (“Mercy”).

Perry is planning a “short, fast, hard tour” with the Joe Perry Project.