“WE CUT THIS RECORD IN A DAY”

THE BLACK KEYS’ DAN AUERBACH EXPLAINS HOW THE DUO’S NEW ALBUM OF BLUES STANDARDS WAS CREATED – WITH THE HELP OF ONE OF HIS GUITAR HEROES

- Jim Beaugez

For The Black Keys’ 10th studio release, Delta Kream, guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney went to the source of Mississippi Hill Country blues, recording songs by late cult heroes R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough with help from musicians who performed with them on classic albums and throughout their heyday.

It’s fair to say The Black Keys wouldn’t exist without the songs on Delta Kream. The music of Burnside, Kimbrough and Fred McDowell was the inspiration for the grimy Rust Belt blues the duo recorded on early albums The Big Come Up [2002] and Thickfreakness [2003]. But whereas they paid homage to Burnside and Kimbrough with a handful of covers on those records, as well as on the 2006 EP Chulahoma, there is an added depth to Delta Kream, on which Auerbach and Carney were joined by two of R.L. Burnside’s right-hand men, guitarist Kenny Brown and bassist Eric Deaton.

“We just started playing for fun,” Auerbach says, “and we cut this record in a day.” Most songs were first or second takes, with Auerbach and Brown swapping roles throughout as they worked to highlight the interplay between the instruments. Their stylistic differences are apparent — the former is often more reserved than the latter on these tracks — but Tchad Blake’s mix posts Auerbach’s guitar mostly center-right while Brown is panned center-left, giving the effect of being in the room while they both find pockets of their own in the swinging grooves Carney and Deaton carve for them.

Were the sessions for Delta Kream the first time you played with Kenny Brown?