Under The Covers With The Black Keys & Heartless Bastards: Songs of Junior Kimbrough

I got into Mississippi Hill Country Blues during my freshman year of college and my feelings have not waned to this day.  Junior Kimbrough is one of the greats from the Mississippi Hill Country that passed before the true appreciation of his genius came to fruition.  Below are tributes from The Black Keys and Heartless Bastards, both Fat Possum label mates of the late great Kimbrough.  If you like what you hear, leave a comment and I can give you some recommendations of Hill Country Blues artists to check out.

My Mind Is Ramblin' - The Black Keys

Done Got Old - Heartless Bastards

YAGN Essentials: The Black Keys, The Big Come Up

The Black Keys are one of the most solid bands around.  All of their albums are good -- if not great.  Their debut, The Big Come Up, is a rocking, bluesy romp of an album .  From the first track, it is obvious that Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney were destined for the big time.  Carney's tireless percussion and Auerbach's soulful vocals and dirty blues guitar work were music perfection to me then and remain so to this day.  9 years and 6 albums later (only counting band releases), they are still one of my favorite bands.  If their latest Grammy Award winning album Brothers is the first you have heard of them, it is time for you to check their back catalog.

Busted

Countdown

The Black Keys, Brothers

I read somewhere My girlfriend told me that she read the following in reference to The Black Keys' latest effort, "The Black Keys are like pizza -- even when it's bad, it's good."  Now, while I think that is a pretty funny, I totally disagree.  I think that Brothers is one of their stronger albums as of late.  It is fun and different at times and has been on heavy rotation around here.  My only complaint is that it does run a little long at 55+ minutes.  Below is a link to my favorite track off of the album, "Everlasting Light," which displays Dan Auerbach's falsetto.  A great track followed by links to two recently released videos for the first two singles on the album.  

Everlasting Light

Tighten Up video link


Next Girl video link

The Black Keys, 2 Tracks from upcoming album, Brothers

Yessir!  A new release from one of the hardest working bands out there.  I love The Black Keys - have since I first heard them doing their raunchy blues rocking thing on Thickfreakness.  The boys recently took some time to do their own things and release a rock/rap album with some very respected MCs.  Dan Auerbach did not disappoint with his solo effort and I haven't listen to more than a song or two from Patrick Carney's side project, Drummer.  They return after Blakroc, the rock/rap collaboration, with these two solid tracks.  My expectations are pretty high for a really good album and the songs below and album cover pictured above are indicators that this will be true.  Brothers is slated for a May 18th release date.  Enjoy the two songs that have been released below.

Tighten Up

Next Girl