Grade: C+
I have been a music fan throughout most of my life.
Even before I could name individual songs and bands, I found myself gravitating to the raging guitars, screaming vocals, heavy bass and thunder-clapping drums that all blared from the radio every day.
Things changed when my mother properly introduced me to Aerosmith.
When I first heard “Walk this Way,” the version performed with Run-D.M.C., it was like entering the sixth dimension – the fourth and fifth were already taken.
If there has been any band to perfectly carry on the immortality and swagger of the Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin, it’s Aerosmith. For this reason, it still remains one of my favorite bands.
So when Steven Tyler announced he was working on a solo album, I was pretty excited. Given he’s one of my favorite living vocalists, I knew he would be able to carry on a whole album on his own.
When I found out this album was going to be more country than rock, I was intrigued. I always knew Aerosmith was heavily inspired by a lot of country music, so I figured the album might be something like “Honkin’ on Bobo,” which is filled with Aerosmith covers of blues songs.
However, when I finally listened to Tyler's project “We’re All Somebody from Somewhere,” I got a mostly decent album that was far, far from being country.
This is definitely not the worst thing Tyler ever released, especially when Aerosmith albums like “Done with Mirrors” and “Rock in a Hard Place” exist, but don’t go in expecting this to be “Toys in the Attic” or “Get Your Wings” with a honky-tonk twang.
Like I said, Tyler is one of my favorite vocalists, but I also have known for years he doesn’t have a country singer’s voice – he has a rockstar’s voice. And that’s completely OK. It’s why we all love him. But a rockstar trying to sing country sounds more like Grand Funk Railroad than Hank Williams.
I think he began to realize this at some point during the recording of this album, which is probably why he tries to mimic this god awful guttural sound for an even worse cover of Aerosmith classic “Janie’s Got a Gun.”
Seriously, it sounds like Tom Waits doing an impersonation of Bob Dylan. Yeah, not pretty.
For a man who supposedly is so inspired by country music, he seems to have a very limited knowledge of it. Songs like the title track, “Hold On (Won’t Let Go)” and “Only Heaven” miss the mark completely, sounding more like basic Aerosmith tracks than anything else.
Tyler basically insults country fans everywhere with “RED, WHITE & YOU,” which is about as stereotypical pop-country as possible. It honestly sounds like a YouTube parody of Jason Aldean.
The closest Tyler gets to country on this record are “Somebody New” and “What Am I Doin’ Right?” These songs should have carried the tone of the album if he was really going for a country record.
Regardless, I can’t really dig on this record too much. I actually enjoyed quite a few of these songs, especially Tyler’s cover of the Janis Joplin classic “Piece of My Heart.” There is no other male singer alive who could capture Joplin’s lyrics like Tyler.
Before listening to this album, you have to realize it’s basically just another Aerosmith record minus the band and with some country influences thrown in. If you draw the line there, then you’ll find yourself in a permanent vacation with a pretty great record.
afaulds@indiana.edu | @a_faulds9615
