Steven Tyler’s country album shines – Guns N’ Roses expand reunion tour to Latin America

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Steven Tyler, “We’re All Somebody from Somewhere” (Dot/Big Machine)

The opening stanza of Steven Tyler’s move into country music includes references to mama and bullets. On paper, those clichés feed those who see the Aerosmith veteran’s Nashville embrace as a desperate attempt to stay relevant by finding a musical genre that will accept him.

Those naysayers would be wrong. “We’re All Somebody from Somewhere” — Tyler’s first solo album — plays to his strengths: inventive melodies, angelic harmonies, a juxtaposition of swagger and sensitivity, and room for that acrobatic voice to soar and strut.

Tyler wraps his scarves around a few Nashville tropes: Banjos, fiddles, mandolins and steel guitars populate several songs, including “It Ain’t Easy,” a clever ballad about life’s struggles, and the philosophical “I Make My Own Sunshine” would fit on a Kacey Musgraves album.

Some tracks show little Nashville influence: “Hold On (Won’t Let Go)” returns Tyler to an early influence, the Jeff Beck Group, but that won’t bother old fans or young country rockers. Only on “Red, White & You” does Tyler stoop to corny bro-country banalities.

“We’re All Somebody from Somewhere” might not return Tyler to the top of the charts, but it suggests he still has a few tricks tucked into his velvet boots.

Guns N’ Roses, whose key members Axl Rose and Slash have reunited after two decades, announced Wednesday they were taking their long-in-the-making tour to Latin America.

The hard rock legends, on one of the highest-profile summer tours of the United States and Canada, announced 10 shows in Latin America starting on October 27 at the vast Estadio Monumental in Lima, Peru.

Guns N’ Roses will play five dates in cities across Brazil and one show each in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Costa Rica, where the tour will end at San Jose’s National Stadium on November 26.

The concerts notably include a November 4 show at the River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires — the scene of the last concert of the band in July 1993 before Slash and Rose parted ways.

The band said on its website that more dates in Latin America were in the works.

Guns N’ Roses already played two dates in Mexico City in April at the start of the reunion, which included southern California’s Coachella festival.

The schedule allows Rose to complete the North American tour of AC/DC, where he has replaced longtime singer Brian Johnson who was told he risked permanent hearing damage if he kept performing.

Guns N’ Roses burst on the international scene with 1987’s “Appetite for Destruction,” which remains the top-selling debut album in history, as fans took to Rose’s raw anger and Slash’s intricate guitar.

But personality conflicts long riveted the band and Slash and Rose had refused lucrative offers to reunite until this year.

Izzy Stradlin, the rhythm guitarist and writer of some of the band’s best-known songs, has declined to participate in the reunion. (Agencies)

By Michael McCall

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