Aerosmith will likely enter the studio sometime in the next two or three weeks to begin recording its much-discussed blues album for Columbia, guitarist Joe Perry tells Billboard.com. Blind Willie McTell's "Broke Down Engine," Little Walter's "Temperature," and "I'm Ready," famously recorded by both Willie Dixon and Muddy Waters, are among the songs being worked up by the band, which he says is now rehearsing and doing a bit of recording in Perry's home studio in Boston.

"By the time we're finished here, I think we're gonna have some tracks we're gonna have to beat when we go into our studio," he says, referring to the band's Boston-area recording facility, which is nearing completion. "At this point, looking at what the song list is, I'd say it's about two-thirds old standards and a third original.

"We're putting our spin on our influences," he continues, "There are some things we're taking kind of a cue from more modern versions. Some of it, like, 'Broke Down Engine,' [Bob] Dylan recorded that in '94, but it was a Blind Willie McTell song that I think was recorded in 1930-something. So we're listening to both versions and making our own version of it."

Perry is quick to dismiss any preconceptions of the album. "We're not making an album for blues purists, we're not making an album to educate people in the blues, we're not making an album to try and copy Muddy Waters. What we're doing is taking songs that when we heard them made the hair on the back of our neck stand up and playing them the way we feel.

"In the end, we're gonna have some songs that sound kind of traditional, and other songs that sound like they come from the 'Rocks' era," he added, referring to the band's 1976 Columbia album.

Thus far, the band has about 10 songs ready, all of which will eventually be recorded live. "That's what the whole thing was, to get back to that," Perry notes, adding that the group is co-producing the set with Jack Douglas, who helmed such band classics as "Get Your Wings" (1974), "Toys in the Attic" (1975), "Draw the Line" (1977), and "Rocks."

The guitarist says he will likely sing at least one song on the record, potentially the early Fleetwood Mac cut "Stop Messin' Round," a longtime concert staple. "We're having a good time doing it, and I'm not letting anything go out that doesn't get me off, like, through and through. And that's my own, selfish take on it. But, then, that's how I've been, that's how I was in 1975."

Perry says he hopes the as-yet-untitled record will hit stores in September, not long after the band begins an amphitheater tour with Kiss, who he calls an "icon onto themselves."

"Just to be touring with them is cool. And then the whole thing about, 'Well ... they're cartoony,' and all that. If you have that kind of attitude, then you're taking your rock'n'roll way too seriously. To me, it's all about entertainment. I went to see them on this comeback tour and I didn't sit down the whole time."

-- Wes Orshoski, N.Y.

Originally posted by bigjim25
"In the end, we're gonna have some songs that sound kind of traditional, and other songs that sound like they come from the 'Rocks' era," he added, referring to the band's 1976 Columbia album.

Originally posted by Brain Stew
Wow this might be the first half decent Aerosmith album in 10 years.