Joe Perry - legendary guitarist, co-founding member, principal songwriter and co-producer of Aerosmith - is set for an in-store album signing at Newbury Comics in his Boston, MA hometown. The signing - in celebration of his just-released solo album, Sweetzerland Manifesto - will start at 6 PM on Thursday, January 25th.

Rolling Stone's Steve Appleford captured Perry's two-hour, sold-out album release show last week (1/16) at The Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles that concluded with a climatic finish at the crescendo of "Train Kept A-Rollin'" as Joe smashed his guitar (see image below). "It was a ferocious finish to a two-hour performance of hard rock and muscular blues..." noted Appleford.

Photo: Steve Thrasher

 

"I didn't know what else to do," Perry told Rolling Stone in an interview the following day. "All of a sudden my guitar was in pieces...it was not anything I planned. It was just that the energy was overwhelming."

Joe was backed by guitarist Dean DeLeo and bassist Robert DeLeo (Stone Temple Pilots), Buck Johnson (keyboards/vocals/Aerosmith) and David Goodstein (drums) who performed the entire set that also featured guest appearances by Slash and Johnny Depp. Gary Cherone (Extreme,Van Halen) handled vocals for the bulk of the show, with other guest vocalists also lighting up the Roxy: Terry Reid, David Johanson, Robin Zander and Chris Robinson.

Sweetzerland Manifesto marks Joe Perry's sixth solo album and is comprised of 10 new tracks. They were all written or co-written by Joe (many with the album's guest vocalists), except for a cover of "Eve Of Destruction" with Joe on lead vocals and Johnny Depp on drums. The album features guest appearances from a long list of Joe's friends, colleagues and rock and roll icons.

Highlights include "Aye, Aye, Aye," which Joe co-wrote with the track's vocalist Robin Zander, and three collaborations with David Johansen, who sings "I Wanna Roll," "Haberdasher Blues," and "I'm Going Crazy," plus as many co-writes with Terry Reid whose lead vocals light up "I'll Do Happiness," (with Zak Starkey on drums), "Sick & Tired" and "Won't Let Me Go".

Sweetzerland Manifesto was recorded at Studio 1480 in Los Angeles and produced by Joe Perry and Bruce Witkin, with Johnny Depp serving as executive producer and additional help from Jack Douglas who co-wrote and co-produced a number of tracks. It was engineered by Witkin and Tony Perry. The album was mixed by Tony Perry with Ari Blitz serving as assistant mix engineer at After Master in Los Angeles. On the album, Joe also teams up with sons Tony and Roman on "Spanish Sushi", which was produced and arranged by The Perry Boys with Joe on guitars and bass, Roman adding synthesizer programming and Tony handling drum programming.

"It's going to be interesting to see what songs people gravitate to because there's such a wide variety of tunes," Joe notes.

Sweetzerland Manifesto tracklisting:

"Rumble In The Jungle (instrumental)
"I'll Do Happiness (featuring Terry Reid)
"Aye, Aye, Aye (featuring Robin Zander)
"I Wanna Roll (featuring David Johansen)
"Sick & Tired (featuring Terry Reid)
"Haberdasher Blues (featuring David Johansen)
"Spanish Sushi (instrumental)
"Eve Of Destruction (featuring Joe Perry)
"I'm Going Crazy (featuring David Johansen)
"Won't Let Me Go (featuring Terry Reid)

"Aye, Aye, Aye (featuring Robin Zander):