Black Keys Cover Junior Kimbrough's Crawlin' King Snake

I found it interesting to see this posted on the usually great Cover Me blog. Some basic historical points and comparisons were made and yet there was no mention of the fact that Dan, Pat, Kenny, and Eric are covering Junior Kimbrough's version.

Contrary to what's stated in the Cover Me post, this has nothing to do with Thorogood or The Doors or 1960's "psychedelic blues-rock" nor does Dan sing in a monotone and it's not an "open-ended jam."

I don't get the point of Cover Me's post. Granted, the songwriter is listed as John Lee Hooker, but the barest of research...a simple google search for Black Keys Crawlin' King Snake would or should clue you in. To not, at the very least, act as if you've heard Junior's version is just plain lazy. To be sure, Cover Me is a great blog and the fact that it's survived and thrived this long is beyond commendable considering how many music blogs have died in the last ten years. They just bobbled the research ball a bit on this one. Kudos to Dan, Pat, and particularly Kenny and Eric for keeping Junior Kimbrough's sound alive and presenting and representing that vibe to a new audience.

DAN AUERBACH w/ Matt Sweeney on Guitar Moves (No relation to Night Moves)

Dan : R.L. would do it like this a lot...
Matt : Why would you ever want to do anything else? You know?
Dan: I don't know.

DAN AUERBACH SEZ...

Listen :: BOMBiNO's New Dan Auerbach Produced Album Nomad Streaming On NPR

THE BARNBURNERS - The Rawboogie Ep Liner Notes

This cover is different from the one I have.

      So yeah, Dan Auerbach used to have a tightly wicked and raw boogiefied three-piece back around 2001 called The Barnburners. The put out a terrific disc called The Raw Boogie Ep. Even got a cease and desist over the band name from some olde school rock farts (and where are those dudes today?)

     Dan and I got to be acquainted via a Yahoo group called Too Bad Jim (which still lives but due to over-spamulation was moved and the name changed to Real Punk Blues). 

      Back in the olden days I had a website called Rick Saunders World, and part of that world was an early version of this Deep Blues page (which still lives as a ghost thanks to Archive.org).  Dan had a cool website called Raw Boogie, where he posted Barnburners info etc (that page also lives on in ghost form thanks to Archive.org).  

     So blahblahblahdeblah, Dan suggested that he liked what I scrawled on my Deep Blues page and asked me to write some liner notes for his bands Ep. I thought his band was frkn great and I was delighted and honored to do it. The band was happy with my spiel and that was that. Next thing ya know and a gazillion gigs and a Grammy later, Dan's a household name. Couldn't have happened to a better dude.

      A couple of friends wanted to read what I wrote about The Barnburners so many super moons ago. You'll find a scan of the cover and the notes below. Dan doesn't want the Ep spread around, and I can respect that. If you look hard enough you might find it lodged in one of the interwebs tubes somewheres. Snag it if you can find it. You'll be glad you did. I think it's kind of cool that what I wrote about Dan ten years ago still holds true today.

Interesting note: I saw the Ep mentioned on a blog recently and it listed the following tracks: Back to Georgia, Big Road Blues, Things I Used To Do, Train I Ride, Meet Me In The City, and Take Five. 

My copy has Train I Ride, Back to Georgia, Big Road Blues, Your Cheating Heart, Last Fair Deal, and Meet Me In The City but not Things I used to Do or Take Five.

Click Images To Embiggen:

Dan Auerbach gets all grown up 'n dirty

photo by Jim Quine

Dan Auerbach has been through some changes since we first came in contact with him. Back then he was a young dude going deep in the blues but still down for finely crafted pop and stoopidsmart hiphop who's life was changed by the sound of Junior Kimbrough. Now he's found himself in demand, the man to mention by some of music's biggest boys to help them return to the river. A smart kid with a deep curiosty and hunger for the thing that moved him. Auerbach's sound has always had a certain sweet salacious swagger. Not a cocky swagger but a swagger stalking a deep swingin' get down and hunting for a larger understanding of the heart and blue soul of it. Dan wallows in music and always has. He wallows in the studio work too. He's a rat and his depth of knowledge on both sides of the studio window shows in his own work, as well as in those he records, but it's his ears as much as his (just as important if not more so) sense of vibe and feel, and service of the song that really sets him apart. He knows that happy little songs ain't no fun and rockin' your own kind of (you can call it whatcha wanna) blues (whatever that is) is where it's at and it shows on his first solo release Keep It Hid. From his pre-Black Keys days to the Keys EP of Junior Kimbrough songs (Chulahoma) Dan Auerbach ,with his partner Pat Carney, aquired the tools to be in full control of refining the sound. Each of the Black Keys albums has been an advancement and a stronger statement of where Dan was on his road. Their work with Danger Mouse in 2008 on an album (some of which became Attack and Release) aimed for working with Ike Turner turned into one step back to Dan's roots and three steps forward in song writing strength and sonic skills. To my mind and ears it's Dan's work on those two albums in particular, plus his production work for protege Jessica Lea Mayfield, the Black Diamond Heavies and others, and most important of all, becoming a husband and daddy that has brought Dan Auerbach to the fine artist he is today. Dan Auerbach is gettin' all grown up and dirty. Keep It Hid is the most swaggerin' sad n' sexyass album i've heard in ages. It's an expansion of the recent Black Keys sound and stature from bigger than national to near universal. It's the Keys as full band yet with perhaps a deeper more personal depth. Dan's Uncle Jim Quine contributed guitar, Bob Cesare brought drums etc, but Dan played most everything else. This has given Auerbach the freedom to really broaden and refine his sonic palette. From the sweet, haunting gospel folk of Trouble Weighs A Ton to the sad heartbreak superock of Whispered Words (written by Dan's dad) to the just plain filthy creepy crusher The Prowl and the pure lovely hopefulness of Goin' Home (which i'll bet is informed by thoughts of his young family) with it's beautiful sad slide solo. In every song , as this album has no filler, Dan has built and honed his best work yet. This is an album that should go down as a gorgeous american classic.

Dan Auerbach Keep It Hid BUY iT! on cd
OR on delicous 180 gram Vinyl w/gatefold sleeve and free cd!

"Trouble Weighs a Ton"


Dan sez it's OK if you steal these MP3s:

Trouble Weighs A Ton MP3

The Prowl MP3

Deep Blues Festival gets press just like the big kids.

Downbeat, that venerable monument to hi-brow grow'd up jazz and otherwise goodness gave us mention the other day and included a very brief blurb from our close personal friend Van Campbell of Black Diamond Heavies. It's his reminiscence of our 2007 fest. Sadly they did not include the whole quote (and it doesn't appear online at all) so I'll lay it for you here. It's probably the nicest thing anybody has ever said about us. Thanks Van!:

"It was almost perfect that it rained so relentlessly at the first Deep blues Festival... It was the most uncharacteristic weather I had ever seen for July... more like November......More than "rained out" we were all "rained in" together. It was a family reunion of lost relatives. We had no idea that there were so many people that were doing a similar thing to what we were doing. It was like finding the land of misfit toys.. We were all there together braving the rain, playing our songs and a lot of time playing different versions of the same old songs! It was the beginning of something we all knew was special. Rick Saunders has been the sort of poetic voice of this festival that seems to have become more of a movement. Rick has been responsible for gathering people together from all over the place. Chris Johnson seems like a "regular guy". In fact he is just that....a regular guy with a house and a sweet family, he just happens to also be somewhat of a visionary. That dichotomy has us all pretty stupified, as you can hear in songs like 'Mr Johnson" by Left Lane Cruiser.......a modern tribute to the man that we hope is making history. It doesn't matter though how big it gets because its just all done out of love and anyone involved could attest to that..."

Here's a new track from the forthcoming BDH album A Touch Of Someone Else's Class
Bidin' My Time MP3

The Black Diamond Heavies will rock us all to hell and back on DAY TWO of The Deep Blues Festival Saturday July 19th 2008. Their new album, recorded with Dan Auerbach of Black Keys will be available June 6th. Tickets are still available!

http://www.downbeat.com/festivalguide.asp