The Black Keys were formed in Ohio, USA in 2001 by the duo of Dan Auerbach on guitar and vocals, and drummer Patrick Carney. They came to prominence during the era that alternative acts such as The White Stripes were popular, and also paved the way a few years later for acts like Royal Blood.

These were minimalist groups where for the most part two band members took care of guitars, drums and vocals and often bass guitar was played either using octave pedals, or sometimes by a session bass player, particularly in a live setting.

Auerbach and Carney were influenced in their formative years by blues artists such as Muddy Waters and RL Burnside as well as bands like The Beatles. Patrick Carney’s uncle Ralph played saxophone as a session player on several Tom Waits albums.

The Black Keys formed as a duo, when the rest of the scheduled musicians didn’t show up for a session in the early 2000s. They recorded a demo that consisted of covers and improvised songs. They began to tour and record, playing anywhere they could get a gig and their hard work started to pay off when they played a set at the SXSW festival.

They were offered £200,000 to license one of their songs for a TV advert, but turned the offer down, fearing that they would be seen as selling out and not taken seriously as artists. After a lot of hard work on the touring circuit, as well as recording several albums’ worth of original material, the band began to get exposure on American TV, as well as playing Reading and Leeds festivals.

Towards the end of the noughties they scored an MTV video of the year award and were also able to work in the studio with high-profile producers and engineers, including Tchad Blake and Danger Mouse.

After much further critical and commercial success, the band went on a temporary hiatus in 2013, before returning in 2019 with a covers album. They continue to record and tour in 2024.

Our track is built on a classic riff in the key of E minor (E-F#-G-A-B-C-D), but the piece actually utilises the C# note instead of C natural, which means that the A chords are all A major (A-C#-E). This gives the overall tonality of the track an E Dorian flavour (E-F#-G-A-B-C#-D), and this provides more of a blues sound as opposed to the typical Minor tonality that you’d expect with this key signature.

The solo is primarily built on the E minor pentatonic scale (E-G-A-B-D) and is aimed at utilising melody and soundscapes over technique, in terms of importance. There is no rhythm guitar part under the solo, mainly because with the low octave harmony line it’s not necessary to further overcrowd the frequencies with extra guitar parts.

Have a look at the video to see the specific playing articulations, and aim to play the parts with good timing and accuracy.

Get the tone

Amp Settings: Gain 7, Bass 6, Middle 6, Treble 7, Reverb 4

Dan Auerbach uses both classic and oddball electric guitars such as Gibson, Harmony and Guild. It’s sonically more Gibson than Fender, but if you are using single-coil pickups just roll the brightness down a little bit. There’s an aggressive fuzz tone on the track, as well as a Plex-style Marshall amp tone. You’ll also want to add a good amount of reverb and delay.

Video and tab

Performance notes 

Rhythm

The rhythm guitar part is not difficult to execute but needs to be played with some controlled aggression in terms of both chords and single-note lines. For the double-stop chords in bars 17-24 you will need to focus on your timing, primarily to avoid rushing ahead.

Lead

The solo has some aggressive string bends and vibrato, and is all about the tone and the way the notes are attacked. This isn’t the time for politeness, and the fuzz-toned percussive notes and string noises in the rhythm and particularly the lead part are very important as far as the overall effect of the piece is concerned.

Hello, and welcome to Essential Guitar Tracks. As you may well know, every seven days (or thereabouts), we endeavor to bring you a selection of songs from across the guitar universe, all with one thing in common: our favorite instrument plays a starring role.

Our goal is to give you an overview of the biggest tracks, our editor’s picks and anything you may have missed. We’re pushing horizons and taking you out of your comfort zone – because, as guitarists, that’s something we should all be striving for in our playing. 

So, here are our highlights from the past seven days – now with a Spotify playlist…

The Black Keys – Beautiful People (Stay High)

Beautiful People (Stay High), the energetic return of Akron, Ohio's finest rock combo, is devoid of guitar fireworks – but then again, that’s not what a Black Keys song is for. As he has since the Keys went supernova with 2010’s Brothers, Dan Auerbach focuses on doling out the funkiest riffs East of the Mississippi. 

In both its chorus and its name, Beautiful People (Stay High), has a euphoric, gospel-like feel – with Auerbach following the lead of the horns in both his supple, funky scratching and slinky leads, which, of course, are seasoned with a healthy dose of fuzz. (JM)

The Black Crowes – Wanting and Waiting

With news that Southern blues-rock stalwarts Black Crowes would be returning for their first record in 15 years comes a rip-roaring lead single – titled Wanting and Waiting – that ushers in the next era of the band. Paving the way for their ninth album, the track is a sultry, swampy romp, supercharged with greasy guitar grooves and blues-y exchanges. Worth the wait. (MO) 

Waxahatchee – Right Back to It (feat. MJ Lenderman)

Two of the brightest and most unique talents to come out of the South in recent years come together on Right Back to It, the new tune from Katie Crutchfield’s Waxahatchee project. MJ Lenderman – best known as the guitarist for Wednesday – adds some beautiful textures to this unhurried waltz. Stay for that solo, though – showcasing his immaculate phrasing and perfect sense of how to work around the melody (and not distract from it), Lenderman is as smooth as any Nashville professional, minus any of the well-worn cliches. (JM)

Slift – Weavers’ Wift

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – the Sub Pop signed French trio are next in line for Mastodon’s mind-expanding metal crown. This latest taster of their new album, Ilion, is laced with intricate guitar, from ringing psychedelia to the sort of riffs that recall Gojira’s terraforming scale. 

It’s accompanied by another sci-fi video installment – all linked up to an overarching story of “Homeric” proportions involving ancient gods, convict ships, and interplanetary travel – that plays out through the rest of the record. The album drops next month, which frankly, does not give us enough time to understand everything that is happening here. (MP) 

C Turtle – Shake It Down

To say Shake It Down wouldn't sound out of place on a hypothetical record masterminded by a supergroup comprising the personnel of Wet Leg, Big Thief, Snail Mail, Fontaines DC and other indie heroes would be somewhat accurate, but even then it would probably undersell it – that’s how tasty this track is. Shake it Down is its own untethered beast – courtesy of emerging act C Turtle, who welcome listeners into their scuzzy indie sonic universe with lashings of loose, unhinged, and deliciously-laid-back-but-perfectly-on-point guitar thrashes. (MO)

Gouge Away – Stuck in a Dream

Performed almost entirely live, Deep Sage is the forthcoming third album from the wiry post-hardcore quintet, and Stuck in a Dream is a ferocious introduction. All Jesus Lizard riffs, acerbic, uneasy bends and urgent post-punk energy, this is a two-and-a-half-minute jolt of electricity for the ears. (MAB)

Lord Dying – The Universe Is Weeping

The self-proclaimed progressive sludge outfit are readying the followup to 2019’s Mysterium Tremendum, and it has a similarly high-concept title: Clandestine Transcendence. First taste The Universe Is Weeping takes thrash-worthy harmony leads and contorts them into an intoxicating, enveloping dual-guitar riff that forms the track’s metallic backbone. (MAB)

Grieving – Tarpaulin

On Tarpaulin, UK four-piece Grieving have expanded from their fine line in roughly-hewn Jawbreaker/HWM melodic punk into post-hardcore territory, taking in a grab bag of late Dischord releases and a thick slab of Pavement in the process. It sounds less comfortable and a little more anxious, wending and winding around layers of arpeggiated guitar licks and textural touches before unleashing the sort of cathartic chorus that bounces around your brain all day. (MP)

BIG|BRAVE – I felt a funeral

BIG|BRAVE guitarist Mathieu Ball once told us, “Whenever we play something too musical, I feel it’s almost a cop out. We have to get rid of any traditional guitar playing!” And that in itself is a reason to listen to any new release from the Canadian experimental rock collective.

On I felt a funeral, every slide, swell and fade of Ball and Robin Wattie’s playing is as important, if not more so, than the notes they play, while their gritty tones fry and sizzle with brooding intensity. (MAB)

BODEGA – Tarkovski

With a suite of guitars dripping in dreamy chorus and a minimalist lead line that is far more infectious than it has any right to be, Tarvoski ushers in the next era of BODEGA – the punk cultural commentators who are gearing up to release their new album this year. 

Titled Our Brand Could Be Yr Life, the record has been teased as a fuzz-soaked collection of rock ruminations dealing with the “slow-creep of corporate think into youth culture,” and its lead single is a fitting curtain lifter. If those indie guitars and ripping solos are anything to go by, it looks like a completely fresh BODEGA is on the way. And we’re so here for it. (MO)

Emma Ayzenberg – lucile

lucile – the latest preview of LA-based singer/songwriter Emma Ayzenberg’s forthcoming iron mountain EP – is a lushly orchestrated gem. Ayzenberg gamely holds down the fort with her acoustic fingerpicking, while Gregory Uhlmann adds some (dark) colors ‘round the edges in the form of clipped, gothic single-note statements that fit Ayzenberg’s beautiful vocals and the song’s cinematic string arrangement like a glove. (JM)

Dead Poet Society – My Condition

A sugar-rush earworm from LA’s DPS that comes ahead of the release of second album, Fission, later this month. It incorporates the gang vocal euphoria of the likes of Grouplove with Royal Blood’s stomping riffs. It feels designed for big stages – full of huge tones, arena-sized reverbs, and a generous serving of ‘woahs’. (MP)

Bring Me the Horizon – Kool-Aid

Bring Me The Horizon’s fine form has continued unabated into 2024, with the British rock band expanding upon their Post Human series with its latest addition, Kool-Aid. 

Following the precedent set by the five tracks that came before it, Kool-Aid is quintessential BMTH – bruising riffs, big soundscapes, and bold vocals. Watch this space for news regarding the band’s upcoming album, Post Human: NeX GEn, which has all the hallmarks of being another BMTH belter. (MO)

Kenzy Peach – Come For Me

A new single from Portland, Oregon based up-’n-comer Kenzy Peach, Come For Me is a delightfully spunky bit of pop. The hooks are massive – primed for airplay and the big stages already – but guitarist Noah Rastegar compliments them with the perfect amount of gritty riffage, jagged leads, and even some Sonic Youth-like dissonance to lead the song out. Oh, and that big-time, super-singable solo? Pure air-guitar gold. (JM) 

Also on this week’s playlist…

• Caligula's Horse – The Stormchaser
• Liam Gallagher, John Squire – Just Another Rainbow
• Kris Barras Band – Hourglass
• Marika Hackman – The Yellow Mile
• Judas Priest – Panic Attack
• Bill Ryder-Jones – I Hold Something In My Hand
• Holy Wars – Tension/Release
• Steve Hackett – Wherever You Are
• Omni – Plastic Pyramid (feat. Izzy Glaudini)

As far as guitarists go, legendary power trio the James Gang are most associated with Joe Walsh, the iconic six-stringer who would go on to find international fame with the Eagles. Before Walsh, though, James Gang's electric guitar slot was occupied by Glenn Schwartz.

Schwartz's story is a fascinating one – after he left the James Gang in 1967, he eventually joined a religious commune, and would only surface again on the music scene decades later, playing a uniquely raw and singular strain of blues that never caught on commercially, but proved to be significantly influential, particularly to a young Dan Auerbach.

Shortly before his passing in 2018, Schwartz began collaborating with Auerbach, with whom he would go on to record a number of songs.

One of those tunes, Daughter of Zion, also features Walsh, and appears on a new compilation from Auerbach's Easy Eye Sound label titled Tell Everybody! (21st Century Juke Joint Blues From Easy Eye Sound).

Dating back to Schwartz's days playing religious music, Daughter of Zion certainly makes his influence on the Black Keys clear. Outfitted with a monster groove, the song features hypnotic, Stones-like interplay between the three guitarists, who look to compliment one another with their licks, rather than compete for attention.

Auerbach himself isn't coy about the musical debt he owes to Schwartz, calling him his “biggest rock 'n' roll inspiration.“ 

“There would be no Black Keys without Glenn Schwartz, that's for sure,“ Auerbach said in a statement. “I really miss him. He was a sweet man who loved the lord and loved music so much. I really respected his conviction.“

Set for an August 11 release, Tell Everybody! also features tunes from other underrated guitar legends like RL Boyce, Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, and Robert Finley, alongside younger players such as Nat Myers and Auerbach himself.

To preorder the album, visit Easy Eye Sound's website.

Dan Auerbach is a man of perpetual motion. If he’s not in the studio tracking with the Black Keys he is out on stage with them, touring in support of their new album, Dropout Boogie. Or else his phone is blowing up with someone looking for his services to produce their album – and not just anyone, neither. Cats like Marcus King have him on speed dial. 

There is no question, the man Auerbach’s time is in demand, so that’s why we doubly appreciate it when he takes some time out to take a trip down memory lane, and discuss five of his favorite tracks from the Black Keys discography. Here goes…

1. I Got Mine – from Attack & Release (2008)

“This was always a fun one to play live. That’s just the sound of the basement – Pat and me in the basement where we used to play. The intro was probably influenced by some sort of James Brown thing. 

“But that riff, I don’t know where it came from, to be honest with you. It was a pretty simple little thing. I’m not sure if there was any one particular influence, more so than others.”

2. Ten Cent Pistol – from Brothers (2010)

“That was at Muscle Shoals Sound [in Alabama]. It feels like that song could have been on the new record [Dropout Boogie]; it’s got a lot of improvisation in it. We were listening to lots of funk, including Mulatu Astatke, the Ethiopian funk guy. We did a lot of solos with the octaves like that, and we were definitely influenced by that on that record.”

3. Little Black Submarines – from El Camino (2011)

“We wrote it with Danger Mouse [Brian Joseph Burton]. We started it on acoustic guitar, and it wasn’t until we got into the studio to record it that we decided to have that ending section, where all the drums and everything kick in. That was fun – getting to be able to do that, and have a song that had a journey to it.”

4. Tighten Up – from Brothers (2010)

“We cut that in New York City and co-wrote it with Danger Mouse. He even started the verses, the stuff on the piano, just coming up with chord changes. They had a grand piano there in the studio. We put that one together fairly quickly, and we also used a drum loop of Pat playing. 

“We had him go in and he played until he got a loop that he really liked, and then we started to layer it together. There’s one solo at the ending [starting at 03:05] with a weird phaser-type sound. That was just a Boss pedal that they had at the studio sitting on a shelf. They didn’t have a lot of pedals – but that was one of them. I just was like, 'Yeah, let’s give it a shot.' 

“It was the first time I ever used that pedal, and it was the main sound on this song that became our first radio success. Pretty funny.” 

Editor’s note: We’re pretty sure Auerbach is referring to the Boss PH-3 Phase Shifter, which he has often used in tandem with a Boss OC-3 Super Octave as part of his live rig.

Here are some Tighten Up outro-solo settings for both pedals, courtesy of GW Associate Editor Chris Gill:

Boss OC-3 Super Octave

Guitar Input, Direct Level: 4, Oct 1 Level: 5, Drive Level: 5, Mode: Drive, Mono Output > PH-3 Input

Boss PH-3 Phase Shifter

Rate: 4.5, Depth: 10, Res: 9, 8-stage setting

5. Lonely Boy – from El Camino (2011)

“We cut it in Nashville, at [my studio], Easy Eye Sound. I’m playing my ’54 Strat that I bought when I was on tour one time. I’ve always loved playing it; it’s got all the original electronics. And I used it all over that record. That started with another pedal that I’d never used before – and haven’t used since! [It’s] that little [pitch-shifting] pedal that bends the note down [most likely a Boss PS-5]. 

“I just plugged it in to see what it was and immediately came up with the riff for the beginning of Lonely Boy. We just started improvising the parts. It’s a very raw, simple song, but we just started jamming on it. And it just started from that cool little pedal sound we were getting.”

• Dropout Boogie is out now via Nonesuch.

What can we say about the 2010s for guitar? There were modern classics from some of rock’s biggest names – Metallica, The Black Keys, Foo Fighters, Slash – and by then emerging guitar heroes including Ghost, Gojira and a young American band with a sound straight out of the early '70s…

These albums, the result of a popular vote hosted right here on Guitar World, arrive at a time when acoustic guitar playing was being taken into new frontiers by a trailblazing players using percussive techniques. And yet these – acoustic moments aside – are resolutely electric guitar albums, all made to be played loud.

Having brought you the greatest guitar albums of the ‘60s, ‘70s, ’80s,’90s, the 2000s, it’s time to turn the clock back a decade, and we'll kick it off at number 10 with a band who went all in on metal's sense of theater.

10. Ghost – Meliora (2015)

The title of Ghost’s third album roughly translates from Latin as “something better” – fitting for what band leader Tobias Forge conceived as a more guitar-driven opus. 

Anonymity has always been at the core of Ghost’s self-made mythology, and while Forge has withheld the true identities of the ‘Nameless Ghouls’ who’ve handled guitar duties over the years, it is known that two Gibson SGs, a 1962 Les Paul and a Fender Telecaster were used in the making of Meliora. 

Each guitar was fed through three different amps to create the album’s rich and impenetrably fortified wall of sound.

9. The Black Keys – El Camino (2011)

Dan Auerbach packed more catchy, feel-good riffs into El Camino than many bands can muster in an entire career. The Black Keys’ seventh album saw the duo of guitarist Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney taking more cues from ’50s rock ’n’ roll than from the North Mississippi bluesmen that had inspired their earliest albums. 

Well known for using a pick and mix assortment of quirky guitars, Auerbach opted for a 1953 Les Paul for much of El Camino and employed some fun toys for the record’s stand-out guitar moments, including a pitch-shifter on Lonely Boy and a talk box for the solo on Money Maker.

8. Dream Theater – Distance Over Time

From a band of virtuosos, Dream Theater’s 14th album has all the chops that fans have come to expect: guitarist John Petrucci’s trademark displays of warp-speed technical ability and some head-scratchingly complicated time signatures. But in Distance Over Time there is heart as well as flash. 

As Petrucci says: “You need to be able to play emotively, soulfully and beautifully just as well as you can play fast and technical.” 

For the majority of the record, Petrucci used his DiMarzio pickup-equipped Ernie Ball Music Man Majesty, and coaxed from it both crystalline lead tones and snarling low-end filth.

7.  Mastodon – Emperor Of Sand (2017)

Nobody does monolithic metal quite like Atlanta-based foursome Mastodon. Written in response to the real-life agony of multiple cancer diagnoses among the band’s nearest and dearest, Emperor Of Sand doubled down on despair, with the inevitability of death as its stark, central theme. 

Forming one of modern metal’s greatest musical brotherhoods, guitarists Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher’s labyrinthine rhythmic interplay is at its exemplary best across the entire collection of 11 conceptually connected tracks. 

Testament to its masterful composition, the album was nominated for Best Rock Album at the Grammys and its lead single, Sultan’s Curse scooped the trophy for Best Metal Performance.

6. Rival Sons – Feral Roots (2019)

As its title suggests, Feral Roots was a primal, back-to-basics offering from American rockers Rival Sons. Written in a swamp shack in Tennessee after the band had returned from a supporting role on Black Sabbath’s farewell tour, the album is the band’s sixth – and their first for major label Atlantic, home to rock giants such as Led Zeppelin and AC/DC. 

Although it’s peppered with acoustic moments, classic rock tones proliferate on Feral Roots, and Scott Holiday used a 50-watt Supro Statesman tube amp to carry the fuzz-filled riffs of cornerstone tracks like Do Your Worst and Back In The Woods.

5. Gojira – Magma (2016)

The sixth album from the French prog-metal pioneers marked something of a stylistic shift for Gojira. The band held back on some of the technical extravagances for which they’d become known in the past, including the normally ubiquitous ‘Gojira pick scrape’. 

The result was a more broadly accessible, emotionally exposed and sonically streamlined record. And even with differently nuanced sides of Joe Duplantier and Christian Andreu’s playing on display in atmospheric numbers like Low Lands and the acoustic closer Liberation, staples of the Gojira sound still abound, with plenty of tricky time signatures and earth-shaking riffs throughout.

4. Metallica – Hardwired... To Self-Destruct (2016)

If Metallica’s 2008 album Death Magnetic was a somewhat laboured attempt at getting back to their thrash metal roots, Hardwired... To Self-Destruct, the long-awaited follow-up, was the record Metallica fans needed. 

While its title evoked the internal tensions that had once threatened to end the band, the aggression in this album was directed outwards with high-octane thrashers like Spit Out The Bone and Atlas Rise! James Hetfield took charge of songwriting duties, while Kirk Hammett provided some of the wildest improvised solos he’s ever committed to record. 

Sticking to favourite Gibson and ESP axes, the pair proved they didn’t need 7-string guitars or low tunings to deliver an output as heavy or as relevant as any modern metal outfit.

3. Foo Fighters – Wasting Light (2011)

With the aim of swerving the clinical sound of modern studio recordings, Foo Fighters’ seventh album served as a love letter to their alt-punk roots. Wasting Light was recorded in Dave Grohl’s garage, using only analogue equipment. 

Produced by Butch Vig, the record packed all the rock ’n’ roll rawness and melodic highs that had first catapulted the Foos onto the airwaves in the 1990s. As well as Grohl’s ballsy rhythms (which he performed using his Gibson Trini Lopez guitars) and Chris Shiflett’s hooky leads, Wasting Light ushered in the return of Pat Smear as an official band member. 

To give listeners a full earful of frequencies, Smear contributed lots of baritone guitar grit.

2. Slash – Slash (2010)

In the ’80s he made his name as a new guitar hero with Guns N’ Roses. In the ’90s he became leader of his own band, Slash’s Snakepit. In the 2000s he was part of the supergroup Velvet Revolver. 

And in 2010 he delivered his first solo album – simply titled Slash. But while this remains the only record he has made under his own name alone, plenty of his famous friends were featured across its 14 tracks.

He called upon legendary rock vocalists including Lemmy, Ozzy Osbourne, Iggy Pop and Chris Cornell. There were some slightly eyebrow-raising collabs with pop stars, The Black Eyed Peas’ Fergie and Maroon 5’s Adam Levine. 

Most significantly, there were two songs featuring Alter Bridge singer Myles Kennedy, with whom Slash would form a long-standing relationship alongside backing band The Conspirators. 

And to top it all off, the album also featured everyone but Axl Rose from the classic Guns N’ Roses line-up. And yet, far from being outshone by this star-studded cast, Slash delivered on everything fans have come to know and love about his guitar playing, with chunky groove-laden riffs and epic wailing solos in abundance. 

Gear-wise, he didn’t indulge in much experimentation, but really – why would he mess with such a classic sound? Rich Les Paul and Marshall JCM800 tones run throughout, with smatterings of wah here and there, and a few clean tones and acoustic guitars for contrast.

1. Greta Van Fleet – Anthem Of The Peaceful Army (2018)

By the time the Michigan-based band of (mostly) brothers were preparing to make their first full length studio album, Greta Van Fleet already had two celebrated EPs under their belt, and their singles Highway Tune and Safari Song had both perched atop Billboard’s Mainstream Rock charts in the USA. 

Their rise had been meteoric, but had also attracted more than its fair share of burdensome remarks. One side of the music press hailed Greta Van Fleet as the next great saviours of rock’n’roll, while claims that the band were little more than a Led Zeppelin rip-off act bounced around like heckles hurled from the darkest corners of a crowded concert hall.

When Anthem Of The Peaceful Army dropped in October 2018, it sold over 80,000 copies in the first week and debuted at number 3 on the US Billboard 200. Its collection of rambunctious rockers and pastoral acoustic numbers demonstrated the band’s ability to rise above the chatter and simply do what they do best: make great rock music. 

Guitarist Jake Kiszka reflects: “The objectives really were to create something raw and organic. There was nothing else out there quite like it at the time. Even now, it stands independently from that decade – specifically as very guitar-driven rock’n’roll music.” 

The record’s widespread, intergenerational appeal perhaps boils down to the fact that Anthem Of The Peaceful Army captured a sound that feels simultaneously refreshing and revivalist. It’s a sound no doubt informed by the classic rock titans of yesteryear, but powered by the animate force of the band’s youth. 

“I suppose it was a collection of many of the things that we’d created musically at the time,” Jake says. “We’d been a group for a while, and we’d been building a sonic direction and a spectrum of sound. It all came to one point on Anthem Of The Peaceful Army.” 

The boys cut the record at Blackbird Studios in Nashville in what would turn out to be a particularly prolific session. 

“We were exploding with creativity,” Jake recalls. “It was interesting because we did bring a handful of material and had everything mapped out, but it turned out that being in a certain environment catered to the essence of off-the-cuff creativity.” 

With previously penned tracks out the window and fresh ideas whirling around the studio, the band began tracking what Jake describes as “a seemingly limitless list of songs and musical concepts” the good old fashioned way – with everyone in one room, all playing together. “I think a lot of that live energy translates,” he says with satisfaction.

Testament to the abundantly creative headspace the band found themselves in, not only were they able to produce 10 killer tracks – plus a bonus, extended version of Lover, Leaver (Taker, Believer) – for Anthem, but they took home the seeds that would germinate into their next great record. 

“Through the course of jamming and all the time that we had in the studio, there were tons of extra musical bits,” Jake says. “We left with a lot of material that didn’t even make the record that was revisited and given a different life when we developed The Battle Garden’s Gate.”

Jake brought longtime staple of his live and recording rigs into the studio – his trusty 1961 Gibson Les Paul SG. To clarify a little, the guitar has the SG shape, but still sports the ‘Les Paul’ name because it was made during the time when Gibson hadn’t quite ironed-out the finer details of its nomenclature after introducing the SG as the double-cut successor to the Les Paul. 

Still equipped with its original stock PAF humbuckers, it’s Jake’s number one for a breadth of different tones and tasks. “It’s sort of a default for me,” he explains. “If I’m working with a bunch of different guitars not getting what I want, I can go there and know that I can achieve what I’m hearing in my head.” 

This being said, Jake’s mind was open to exploration. He recalls: “The beautiful thing about getting in the studio for me is that I’m not using anything that I’m particularly familiar with, which sort of gives me a wider range of creative elaboration. I get to pick up a guitar I’ve never picked up before and see what happens.” 

For one of the record’s stand-out tracks, Watching Over, he did just that, and grabbed a nearby Coral Electric Sitar to try out on the song’s intricate, mystically tinged solo. Not one to overthink a good thing, he laughs: “It was really cool, so I just kept it.”

Of course, the resulting sound has those late-60s bohemian associations, but as Jake postulates, “The coolest part of picking up a guitar that I’m maybe unfamiliar with is that it sort of guides my hand and forces me to play in an alternative way.”

The sitar wasn’t the only example of this. “There’s a Telecaster on that record as well, which I’ve never talked about much,” he reveals with the sort of glee you might expect from a magician upon giving up his secrets. 

Tonally, it’s a very different beast to his usual weapon of choice, and he explains how the switch from Gibson to Fender – and from humbuckers to single coils – wasn’t quite as radical a leap from his normal palette of influences as it might at first seem. “Some of the sonic associations with it were the British Invasion. You know, really early stuff like Jeff Beck and Page. Even Clapton. Those were some of the reference points for me.”

Fittingly, for a rock album recorded in the world capital of country music, and at a studio that’s seen the likes of Dolly Parton, Tim McGraw and Sheryl Crow pass through, he adds, “There’s also this early American country music association as well, so it was somewhere in between.” 

Similarly, there were also British and American forces at work in the amp department, and Jake used a 1960s Vox AC30 as well as a selection of Marshall and Fender amps that the studio’s owner, John McBride, had to hand. 

With little else in the way of pedals and effects, the timeless sound of gutsy riffs and lofty solos played through cranked valve amplifiers is what characterises much of the album. Simply, “the goal was to make it very stripped and very naked, in that sense.”

The spirit of simplicity was by no means extended to the actual playing, however. Jake shows off his considerable slide chops on Mountain Of The Sun, performs the catchy yet complex riff of When The Curtain Falls with precision and grit in equal measure, and his incendiary solo on Lover, Leaver is again reminiscent of Jimmy Page at his eyes-shut, spontaneous best. 

As for the performance he’s personally most proud of, Jake singles out the epic Brave New World. “It’s one of my favourites because of the type of guitar playing. It’s very interesting and very avant-garde. I was sort of going out of my way to do something that no other guitar player would do – just making it strange intentionally.”

In this month’s Bought & Sold, it is the turn of the Gabbard Brothers and Black Keys touring guitarist Andrew Gabbard to drop by and share some war stories from a life of buying and selling guitar gear.

Gabbard released his debut solo album, Homemade, last October, and it is a doozy – a work of soft-focus alt-country, streaked with languid hooks, all recorded in his basement studio in 2020. 

As you might expect, the guitar tones are something to be savoured. Gabbard has honed his taste in electric guitars over the years, developing a craving for a certain electric guitar pickups in particular; there’s something about the bite of a Firebird pickup that gets him every time. 

Here he unpacks that love for Gibson Firebirds, and for humbucker tones of all kinds, and discusses gear wins and gear regrets, and answers the age-old questions: single coils or humbuckers? high-end electric guitar and cheap amp or cheap guitar and high-end guitar amp?

What was the first serious guitar that you bought with your own money?

“The first guitar I ever bought with my own money was actually a Les Paul Custom, like the Mary Ford SG with three pickups. I got it at this weird shop in Franklin [Ohio] called Fretware. I was in a car accident and I got settlement money, so I just went in to get a guitar and the guy was really nice. 

“I was really young and I was playing a Captain Beefheart song or something, and the guy gave me a great deal on it. It was awesome. I mean, usually when you go anywhere [to try or buy a guitar], especially when you’re younger, it’s like you’re terrified of any interaction with an older person who knows things about guitars. But he was really nice.”

What was the last guitar you bought and why?

“The last guitar I got is a Rickenbacker 325. I think it’s the John Lennon Ed Sullivan [Show] guitar. I’ve always wanted one of those because I love The Beatles. They have a really short scale and so I had never got one before, but this one was made in 1984 with a full-scale neck on it.

“That was why I had to have it – I felt like, finally, it’s one that’ll fit me. I wish and dream that one day Fender will make a full-scale Mustang because little guys look really good with that guitar, but when I hold a Mustang it just makes me look like I’m freaking huge.”

What’s the most incredible find or bargain you’ve had when buying guitars?

“I got a pretty good deal on a Firebird. I’m not the most technical guitar guy, you know; the Firebird with the three pickups? I picked one of those up at a Guitar Center one time, and it was a freakin’ deal and a half. 

“I don’t know if it was a defect or something, but that was a deal. And I don’t know if this counts, but I got to go to the Gibson factory a couple of years ago and got a couple of free guitars. So that was my biggest deal [laughs].”

What’s the worst case of buyer’s remorse you’ve had after buying a piece of gear?

“I have had a lot of guitars over the years, but it’s very far in between when I can afford to buy something. I guess the only thing I can really think of offhand is I had an amp when I was a kid called a Gorilla Tube Cruncher. I bought one on eBay, but when I got it, it wasn’t the same model and I was pretty bummed. I haven’t had much remorse just because I make do with what I got. It really doesn’t take much for me to be able to get the sound that I want.”

Have you ever sold a guitar that you now intensely regret letting go?

“Yes, that Firebird I told you about earlier. I didn’t sell it, I traded it to a friend for a Les Paul Standard – and I have no regrets because that Les Paul is the best guitar I’ve ever had. But I traded the Firebird off and I think about it all the time and I do miss it. I’m glad that I traded it to a friend. I mean, I know where it’s at, so I could go over there and steal it. I know where he lives...”

What’s your best guitar-buying tip?

“I would say just to play it and if you’re not sure of what you want, then look at what your favourite guitar player plays. I always wanted a Goldtop because Neil Young played one and he’s got that Firebird pickup in it. 

“I have a Goldtop now and I love it, but I think that my love for Firebirds comes from Neil because he had a Firebird pickup in his guitar and they just cut through. I find that when I play something that has a mini-humbucker or a Firebird pickup in it, it always seems to be exactly what I’m looking for.”

If you could only use humbuckers or single coils for the rest of your career, which would you choose and why?

“A lot of my favourite guitarists play Stratocasters, but I’m never happy playing something with single coils. It just never works out for me. So I would definitely choose the humbucker and, in particular, I would use a mini Firebird pickup. It’s the best sound to me. And you know what? I use the neck pickup a lot. A lot of people think that’s funny because I like a big, thick, cutty sound. So I’d choose humbuckers all day, every day.”

If forced to make a choice, would you rather buy a really good guitar and a cheap amp or a cheap guitar and a top-notch amp?

“I would go with the cheap amp, all the way. I really love Fender amps and I honestly think the smaller, the better. I’m sure that the more expensive they are, probably they’re better. But if you’ve got a good ol’ guitar, you’re not going to do any wrong – it doesn’t matter what amp it is. 

“I’ve never had a problem finding my sound on whatever amp is there. So I would definitely choose the nice guitar. Plus, it’ll look cooler than a cheap guitar; not everybody’s looking at your amp.”

Andrew’s go-to gear

“I use a 2019 Gibson Firebird and a Fender Deluxe. I also use the EarthQuaker Devices Tone Reaper and I really love my JHS Milkman pedal, which is like a slapback pedal. I use a tuner; it’s important to keep in tune. But it doesn’t take much – I get most of my sound from my amp.”

• Homemade is out now via Karma Chief/Colemine Records.

The Black Keys released their 11th studio album Dropout Boogie on Friday (May 13), and now you can hear one of the record’s highlights – a new track featuring Billy F Gibbons, called Good Love.

It’s an insouciant, shuffling blues rocker, full of woozy rhythms and slicing little lead lines that shuffle in from the sidelines to catch your ear. 

The Black Keys recorded the album across summer 2021 at Dan Auerbach’s own Easy Eye Sound Studios. Reportedly, they learned that Gibbons – who has professed himself a fan of the duo – was in town and invited him down to the studio. 

“I sent him a text, very off-the-cuff,” explained Auerbach in a recent Stereogum interview. “I said, ‘If you’re free later, stop by, Pat [Carney, drums] and I are in the studio.’ He just showed up. He brought a bottle of red wine, no guitars. I handed him a guitar he had never played, and an amp he never played. He plugged it straight in, turned it all the way up, and it sounded exactly like Billy Gibbons. 

“Pat brought that up the other day. Everyone goes on and on about what special gauge strings Billy uses, his holy grail Les Paul. Man, whatever that guy picks up sounds like him. It’s awesome. Dr. John was like that. He could sit down at whatever and it sounded like him. David Hidalgo is like that, too. I worked with him on the Arcs and some other stuff. We wrote here a few times. It’s all in his fingertips.”

Gibbons has long followed The Black Keys’ activities, having caught the band playing in New Mexico during their tour in support of third album Rubber Factory in the mid-’00s.

“He came to one of our first shows, when we were touring Rubber Factory,” adds Auerbach. “He came to a show in New Mexico. There were 30 people in the audience. And one of them was Billy Gibbons. He didn’t even say hello to us. He came to the show, we were done, and he left. I didn’t see him. Everybody was like, ‘Man, Billy Gibbons was here!’ He told everybody he loved it. So he’s been a supporter for a long time.”

As such, the Good Love session, was not the first time the duo played with Gibbons. They were previously invited to jam with ZZ Top in 2008 by producer Rick Rubin, though the results of that session ultimately did not make the release that would become 2012’s La Futura.

In other Black Keys news, Dan Auerbach recently took some time to reflect on the band’s landmark 2010 album Brothers, revealing some of the tonal secrets behind that Howlin’ For You fuzz sound in the process...

Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney of The Black Keys have revealed some of the tonal secrets behind their trademark blues belter, Howlin’ For You.

The duo recently spoke to Rolling Stone's The Breakdown about the making of their 2010 breakthrough album, Brothers. During the conversation, Auerbach explained that the uniquely raw fuzz tone of the album's hit single, Howlin’ For You, was due in a large part to a Supro Martinique electric guitar.

“I was playing that guitar right there, that Supro,” explains Auerbach of the instrument he is thought to have acquired around 2007. 

“It has like a DI sound that’s really weird and we used it a bunch on that record. It’s got three positions. Forward is this pickup [the neck], back is this [the bridge pickup] and when you go here [the final setting] there’s a piezo pickup, which I think is under the bridge. 

“It’s sort of like an acoustic pickup, which is not intended to go through a fuzz pedal, you know? [laughs]. Which is what we did and you get this weird, buzzy, thin, cool sound and we used this a bunch throughout the record.”

The Martinique was originally built in the 60s (though later reissued) and featured a semi-hollow ‘reso-glass’ body, a mahogany neck and two Vistatone single-coils. The ‘piezo’ Auerbach refers to is a Silversound under-saddle pickup – an early take on the concept.

“We made the record without Pro Tools,” adds Carney. “There was no grid… We had to get things tight and laid out. There was no going in there and fixing it. The timing of the tremolo was a complete headache, trying to get analog tremolo and analog recording to sync.”

In the accompanying video, Auerbach and Carney play back the original takes and you can hear some nice details, like Auerbach’s improvised scratch vocal echoing across the track.

The instrumentation on Brothers is also revealed to have been influenced somewhat by some of the band’s smoking habits at the time. 

“We were dabbling in this weed that was real brown… It looked like a Merit Ultra Light, ground up,” recalls Carney. “It was new for me and we called our day-to-day manager in Nashville after smoking this shit and we’re like, ‘Can you bring down… a… harpsichord?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, what’s going on down there?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know – Dan and I have been smoking some weed lately…’”

“We never claimed to be professional,” chimes in Auerbach.

“It has a life of its own nowadays,” concludes Carney of Howlin’ For You. “I wish we’d have known at the time we were working on it that that was what a hit feels like. It would have been a lot less stressful writing other songs!”

Head to Rolling Stone for the full Black Keys interview on The Breakdown.

The Black Keys have released It Ain't Over, the second single from their upcoming 11th studio album, Dropout Boogie.

Written by guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney in tandem with Reigning Sound's Greg Cartwright, the track follows the LP's first single – the bouncy, groove-driven Wild Child – and features a markedly more soulful and relaxed feel and arrangement.

Driven throughout by a brooding bassline over Carney's mid-tempo stick work, It Ain't Over expands in the choruses with expansive synth swells, and features occasional pockets of blues guitar magic, including a fuzz-bathed passage at the 2:10 mark and some loose-time licks from 3:06. Check it out below.

Dropout Boogie is set to arrive via Nonesuch Records on May 13, one day before the 20th anniversary of the band's debut LP, The Big Come Up. It follows last year's Delta Kream, a covers album in which Auerbach and Carney offer new renditions of classics by R. L. Burnside, John Lee Hooker, Big Joe Williams and more.

Featuring contributions from ZZ Top's Billy F Gibbons and Kings of Leon collaborator Angelo Petraglia, the album is notable for using a number of first takes, a decision taken to hark back to the “stripped-down blues rock of The Black Keys' early days making music together in Akron, Ohio basements”.

“That's always been the beauty of the thing Pat and I do,” Auerbach explains. “It's instant. We've never really had to work at it. Whenever we'd get together, we'd just make music. We didn't know what we were going to do, but we'd just do it and it would sound cool.

“It's the natural chemistry Pat and I have. Being in a band this long is a testament to that. It was a real gift that we were given. I mean, the odds of being plopped down a block and a half from each other in Akron, Ohio – it just seems crazy.”

The band are set to support Dropout Boogie on a 32-date North America tour – their first in three years – kicking off in July. The run will make stops in Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and more, before wrapping in Dallas, Texas on October 18. 

Supporting artists include Band of Horses – who will appear at all dates – and Ceramic Animal, Early James and The Velveteers, who will all open at select dates only.

Welcome to Guitar World’s weekly roundup of the musical highlights from the, erm, world of guitar. Every seven days (or thereabouts), we endeavor to bring you a selection of songs from across the guitar universe, all with one thing in common: our favorite instrument plays a starring role.

Rammstein – Zeit

What is it? Why, it’s the eagerly awaited return of everyone’s favorite German industrial-metallers. The title track from their forthcoming eighth studio album veers about as close to cinematic post-rock as Richard Z. Kruspe and Paul Landers have ever ventured, with big tremolo-picked crescendos between the tranquil piano verses.

Standout guitar moment: Rammstein have always been known for their crushing distorted tones, but they sound particularly gargantuan here. Proper tone nirvana stuff, this.

For fans of: Fear Factory, In Flames, Mono

– Michael Astley-Brown

The Black Keys – Wild Child 

What is it? After revisiting their Delta blues roots in thrilling fashion with the 2021 covers album, Delta Kream, The Black Keys are back with Dropout Boogie, their first new album of original material in three years. Wild Child is the album’s earworm of a lead single. 

Standout guitar moment: Though Wild Child is certainly no Delta blues homage a lá anything on Delta Kream, its stinging, vibrato masterclass of a solo shows that the Ohio duo’s formative blues influences are never too far away. 

For fans of: Portugal. The Man, Jack White, Wolfmother

– Jackson Maxwell

Josh Smith – Brand New 

What is it: The lead single from the blues guitar heavyweight’s newly announced album Bird of Passage, which will arrive early next month. With the backing of a fully stacked horn section, Smith harks back to old-school blues, and demonstrates a perfect pairing of classic forebear-inspired and more contemporary playing.

Standout guitar moment: The solo is Smith all over, showcasing his robust skills of navigation round the pentatonic box and the neighboring areas. There’s an abundance of classically blues bends and slides, too, though with that trademark Smith flair courtesy of some classy turnarounds and box-pushing ideas.

For fans of: Matt Schofield, Kirk Fletcher, Joe Bonamassa

– Matt Owen

Alexisonfire – Sweet Dreams of Otherness

What is it? The raucous first single from the Canadian post-hardcore heroes’ first new album in 13(!) years, Sweet Dreams of Otherness is a blockbuster take on mid-tempo alt-rock, with a chunky production and colossal overdrive tones.

Standout guitar moment: Could it be anything other than that swaggering main riff? We can already see the mosh pits forming.

For fans of: From First to Last, Underoath, Every Time I Die

– Michael Astley-Brown

Ibibio Sound Machine – 17 18 19

What is it? Based around a Nigerian playground chant, 17 18 19 is a delicious, synth-, horn- and percussion-powered jam that could get even the most uptight person onto the dancefloor. It serves as the fourth single from the London octet’s upcoming fourth album, Electricity.

Standout guitar moment: Alfred Kari Bannerman is a funk guitar master, a distinction he flaunts throughout this track. Especially tasty is the compressed wave of wah-soaked, rapid-fire rhythm work he unleashes in the song’s outro. 

For fans of: Hot Chip, Sons of Kemet, Songhoy Blues

– Jackson Maxwell

Tallah – Telescope

What is it? Nu-metal is back and it’s never sounded more extreme than at the hands of Pennsylvania’s Tallah, who have just dropped the first single from their sophomore full-length. Channeling early Slipknot at their most ferocious, Telescope is wall-to-wall drop-tuned riffage that simply does not let up.

Standout guitar moment: It’s hard to pick just one, but we sure love that one-note chug into the everything-but-the-harmonic drop just before the three-minute mark. Chills.

For fans of: Slipknot, Korn, Lotus Eater

– Michael Astley-Brown

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – The Dripping Tap

What is it: An epic 18-minute Gizzard jam, and the first single to be lifted from the band’s upcoming double-album, Omnium Gatherum. As you’d expect from a track of that length, there’s a bounty of guitar work going on, starting from the charging opening riff to high-octane reprise of the bruising finale.

Standout guitar moment: The all-out three-minute fretboard throwdown that arrives around the seven-minute mark is, simply put, unmissable: it’s a melting pot of thick, wah-drenched wails, fuzzy licks and slinky harmonized motifs, all thrown together in a destructive flurry of notes.

For fans of: Tame Impala, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets

– Matt Owen

Vexes – Beyond the Sinking

What is it? With a 24-track double album on the way, the New Jersey alt-metallers have dropped a sonically expansive bruiser of a single, loaded with bulldozer riffs and sweeping soundscapes.

Standout guitar moment: We’re absolute suckers for a good slow bend in a heavy riff, and that opening salvo delivers in spades.

For fans of: Night Verses, Thrice, Skyharbor

– Michael Astley-Brown

The Black Keys have announced their 11th studio album, Dropout Boogie, launching its bouncy, groove-driven first single, Wild Child.

Arriving May 13 via Nonesuch Records, Dropout Boogie follows last year's Delta Kream, a collection of blues covers that saw Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney pay tribute to the likes of R. L. Burnside, John Lee Hooker and Big Joe Williams.

Dropout Boogie sees the duo return to original material, and features guest appearances from the likes of ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, Reigning Sound's Greg Cartwright and Kings of Leon collaborator Angelo Petraglia.

The album will drop one day before the 20th anniversary of the band's debut LP, The Big Come Up. All of its material was written in the studio, with many first takes captured and used, harking back to the “stripped-down blues rock of The Black Keys' early days making music together in Akron, Ohio basements”.

“That's always been the beauty of the thing Pat and I do,” Auerbach says. “It's instant. “We've never really had to work at it. Whenever we'd get together, we'd just make music, you know? We didn't know what we were going to do, but we'd just do it and it would sound cool. 

“It's the natural chemistry Pat and I have. Being in a band this long is a testament to that. It was a real gift that we were given. I mean, the odds of being plopped down a block and a half from each other in Akron, Ohio – it just seems crazy.”

The album's first single, Wild Child, is characterized by The Black Keys' uber-accessible brand of blues-rock, with Auerbach's catchy vocal lines and crunchy electric guitar powerchords taking center stage. Check it out below.

After conceiving initial ideas for the album at Auerbach's Nashville studio, Easy Eye Sound, he and Carney got things going with the help of Gibbons, Cartwright and Petraglia. The latter two contributed to the album's first single, Wild Child.

“Living in Nashville and making records here has opened both of our minds to that experience a little bit more,” Auerbach says. “I knew Pat would love working with both of these guys, so we decided we’d give it a shot. It was the first time we’d ever really done that. It was fun as hell. We just sat around a table with acoustic guitars and worked out a song ahead of time.” 

“The cool thing with Greg is that he wants to approach stuff with a story in mind – there’s a plot, almost,” Carney adds.

The story of Billy Gibbons' inclusion on the record began over a decade ago, when Auerbach and Carney jammed with the ZZ Top legend while he worked on an album with Rick Rubin in LA.

“We never even really wrote one song – we just had some ideas we put down,” Carney remembers. “We really just wanted to hang out with him. We stayed in touch, and Dan invited him to the studio once we started working on this album.”

The band will support the record on a North American tour – their first in three years – commencing in July. The trek will make stops in Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and more, before wrapping up in Dallas, Texas on October 18.

Dropout Boogie is available to preorder now. For more info on The Black Keys' upcoming North America tour, head to their official website.

The Black Keys have announced a 32-date North American trek, which they've affectionately dubbed the "Dropout Boogie tour."

Set to run from early July through mid-October, the tour – undertaken in support of the band's stellar 2021 blues covers album, Delta Kream – will take the band across the United States, with stops in Toronto and Vancouver, Canada as well. 

Band Of Horses – hot on the heels of a new album of their own – will open all 32 dates of the tour, with additional support from Ceramic Animal (on the July 9-30 shows), Early James (from August 24-September 9), and the Velveteers (from October 2-18).

Beginning tomorrow, February 1, at 10 a.m. local time, the Black Keys will be holding an exclusive fan club presale, during which fans can also purchase a limited number of VIP packages, which include perks like premium seats, a sound check visit and an autographed lithograph.

Tickets go on general sale this Friday, February 4, at 10 a.m. local time. You can check out the full tour itinerary below.

Ranked by Guitar World readers as one of the best guitar albums of 2021, Delta Kream brought the blues revivalists turned arena rockers back to their musical roots. 

Recorded with the help of legendary Mississippi Hill Country blues guitar player Kenny Brown, the album was the product of some spontaneous jam sessions involving Brown, bass guitar player Eric Deaton and Black Keys frontman/electric guitar player Dan Auerbach.

“It was just so much fun that I had to call Pat [Carney, drummer], and I said, ‘Man, you gotta come over here and I’ll see if these guys can stay an extra day and you can just play some songs.’ And that’s what he did,” Auerbach told Guitar World in 2021. “He showed up the next morning; we just started playing for fun and we cut this record in a day.” 

For tickets and more info on the tour, stop by The Black Keys' website.

The Black Keys – Dropout Boogie 2022 North American tour:

July 9: Las Vegas, NV – MGM Grand Garden Arena
July 11: Salt Lake City, UT – USANA Amphitheatre
July 13: Denver, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre
July 15: St. Louis, MO – Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre St. Louis
July 16: Indianapolis, IN – Ruoff Music Center
July 17: Chicago, IL – Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre Tinley Park
July 20: Saratoga Springs, NY – Saratoga Performing Arts Center
July 22: Jones Beach, NY – Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater
July 23: Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center
July 25: Columbia, MD – Merriweather Post Pavilion
July 27: Charlotte, NC – PNC Music Pavilion
July 29: Boston, MA – Xfinity Center
July 30: Philadelphia, PA – Waterfront Music Pavilion (formerly BB&T Pavilion)
August 24: West Palm Beach, FL – iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre
August 25: Tampa, FL – MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre
August 27: Atlanta, GA – Ameris Bank Amphitheatre
August 28: Huntsville, AL – Orion Amphitheatre
August 30: Charleston, SC – Credit One Stadium
September 1: Raleigh, NC – Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek
September 3: Cincinnati, OH – Riverbend Music Center
September 6: Toronto, ON – Budweiser Stage
September 7: Detroit, MI – Pine Knob Music Theatre
September 9: Cleveland, OH – Blossom Music Center
October 2: Seattle, WA – Climate Pledge Arena
October 3: Vancouver, BC – Rogers Arena
October 5: Mountain View, CA – Shoreline Amphitheatre
October 8: Los Angeles, CA – The Forum
October 10: Phoenix, AZ – Ak-Chin Pavilion
October 13: Rogers, AR – Walmart AMP
October 15: Houston, TX – Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
October 17: Austin, TX – Moody Center ATX
October 18: Dallas, TX – Dos Equis Pavilion

It's one thing for an established rock band to make a back-to-basics album. But it’s quite another to go all the way back to the songbook and sidemen who inspired you in the first damn place. 

For their 10th studio release, Delta Kream [Nonesuch], the Black Keys did just that, hosting a Hill Country blues party in honor of their departed heroes R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, with help from musicians who performed with them on classic albums and throughout their heyday. 

The whole affair was partly an act of serendipity – guitarist Kenny Brown and bassist Eric Deaton were both in Nashville to back Robert Finley on a session at Easy Eye Sound, Auerbach’s studio near Nashville’s Music Row, in December 2019. However, just three weeks removed from the Black Keys’ tour in support of their previous album, Let’s Rock, Auerbach caught a vibe with Brown and Deaton and soon they were digging into songs he hadn’t played in decades.

“It was just so much fun that I had to call Pat [Carney, drummer], and I said, ‘Man, you gotta come over here and I’ll see if these guys can stay an extra day and you can just play some songs.’ And that’s what he did,” Auerbach says. “He showed up the next morning; we just started playing for fun and we cut this record in a day.” 

It's hard to understate the impact Mississippi hill country blues had on Auerbach and Carney, and 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 flashpoint for the grimy Rust Belt blues the duo recorded on early releases The Big Come Up [Alive, 2002] and Thickfreakness [Fat Possum, 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: The Songs of Junior Kimbrough [Fat Possum], the addition of Brown and Deaton on Delta Kream unlocked hill country secrets like the hypnotic groove of Going Down South and the locomotive Coal Black Mattie. 

They revisited Kimbrough’s Do the Rump, trading the lo-fi fuzz of their debut-album version for a slower, more confident and muscular rhythm with Brown’s unhinged slide attack and a fiery Auerbach solo. Auerbach first met Brown as a fan, when the Fat Possum Juke Joint Caravan tour stopped at the Euclid Tavern in Cleveland, Ohio, in the late Nineties. 

“I was really lucky up in north-eastern Ohio; there was lots of great music that came through Cleveland,” he says. “I would get to see people like R.L. Burnside and Link Wray, and I saw Glenn Schwartz every week. I realized getting to see people in person was just what I loved.”

Those shows only drew him closer to the flame. When he was 18, he and his father took a trip to Mississippi to find the source of Auerbach’s obsession, and to hear “those guys [who] weren’t necessarily going to come to me.” 

He found both heartbreak and elation – Junior Kimbrough was in bad health, but he watched his sons play his dark, often unstructured, fingerstyle country blues at his juke joint in rural Chulahoma. When they crossed the flat, alluvial Mississippi Delta to Greenville, they found an aging T-Model Ford and spent time with him, as well. 

On Delta Kream, these experiences are full-frame as Brown wrings his opening slide licks on Crawling Kingsnake into feedback and Auerbach frets John Lee Hooker’s nimble riff. Recording live facing each other, the band found their way through muscle memory, intuition and the subtle cues of musicians steeped in a largely improvised tradition.

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.

Auerbach recently talked with Guitar World about coming back to Mississippi hill country blues after two decades and how Delta Kream came to life.

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

“That was the first time I’d really played with him. I’d seen him so much; he’s so influential. Of course, any time I saw R.L. Burnside, Kenny was there by his side. Such a big part of those Junior Kimbrough and R.L. records that I just obsessed over. So I felt like I knew him, I felt like I’d played with him a million times because I sort of had, playing along with the records.”

Did he take on the same role that he played with R.L. when you played together?

“Yeah, the Kenny Brown role. [Laughs] Eric knows all those songs just about better than anybody and Kenny helped to invent the ones that we know and love, so it was just a real treat, because I love that particular type of music so much, that hill country blues. These guys really know that stuff and it’s just an absolute joy getting to hang out with those guys and play those songs with them.”

You made a pilgrimage to visit the blues artists of north Mississippi in the 1990s. What was that trip like?

“The first time that I went to Junior [Kimbrough]’s juke joint, that’s when I found out he was really sick and he lost a leg to diabetes, and he just hadn’t been playing. That was also the first time I spoke to Kinney Kimbrough [Junior’s son] and met Garry Burnside [R.L.’s son].

“They told me and my dad if we could loan them some money to get David Kimbrough out of jail, they could get him over to the club where we were at and they could play some Junior songs. So we gave him some money; I think it was like $24.

“Then David came in. Junior had a lot of kids, but [David] was by far the standout musician and he played his dad’s songs so well. He had a strong voice, like Junior had when he was young, and I got to hear them play those Junior songs in Junior’s juke joint, surrounded by all the dancers and drinking the corn liquor. They paid us back at the end of the night from beer money and I’ve been playing with Kinney ever since.”

Patrick is quoted as saying, “Kenny Brown brings an organized chaos.” What does that mean on this new record?

"Kenny knows there are parts you have to play and you can’t mess them up, but he also understands that you can’t play those parts the same way twice. Not supposed to. Every time he solos, it’s different. He just goes for it. That’s just how he is. I think Patrick describes his guitar playing as eccentric, and I wholeheartedly agree with that.”

What did playing with Kenny bring out of you? Did you adjust your role of what you normally play in the Black Keys?

“I think some of that spirit in the Black Keys, that reckless abandon when we play, that was learned from people like Kenny Brown. You know what I mean? So I think that’s why we can go and improvise a record together. I learned from watching him.”

How did you come up with the song list for Delta Kream? Was it just people calling out different songs, like at a juke?

“Just right off the back of the hand, just thinking about the songs, and whatever popped to mind we would try it. It was funny how quickly [songs] came back. You’d say, 'What about this song? Start to pick at it a little bit and then, 'No, I think it goes like this. I think it does this here. Let’s give it a shot, and then we’d have the song in one or two takes. That’s how we made the record.”

On Louise it sounds like you’re doing a pretty close approximation of Fred McDowell’s fingerstyle playing and how you let certain open strings drone.

That’s definitely so hard to do. I used to try to figure it out, but that’s the thing with this record – this is stuff I used to try to figure out when I was 20, and I just haven’t played it since then. Those things are so ingrained in my brain, and Eric too, he knows all those songs by heart and then some.”

What are the main stylistic differences between the R.L. and Junior stuff – and Fred for that matter – in how they play?

“Well, R.L. is more part of a tradition. When you say hill country blues, I think R.L. is more part of that tradition. He comes out of Scotty McDowell and Wayne Burnett and people like that who are really rhythmic, with the open tuning. You’ve got that “whack” thing going on with the thumb, it’s very percussive. 

Junior Kimbrough was his own thing, absolutely. He definitely was a product of the hill country and his sound represents it, but he is so unique that maybe they all sounded like him.”

You acquired Fred McDowell’s Gibson Trini Lopez a while back. Did that play a role in the mix of instruments you and Kenny played?

“Kenny did play it; I don’t remember which song. You know what guitar that I got recently also is Hound Dog Taylor’s Teisco [Kingston-branded SD-40]. Everybody played that one. Kenny Brown, we split them out and he played it some on the record. 

“But Kenny had the Silvertone that I saw R.L. play every time I saw R.L. play, and it’s on the records that I love. Those are Kenny’s guitars. A black Strat that he always played. Those had a really amazing sound and I remember those things very vividly. It was really fun.”

How far out did you get with amps and other gear, or did you plug straight in?

“I had my tweed [Fender] Deluxe narrow panel and an [Ebo Customs] E-verb spring reverb. This guy in town [Eric Borash], in Nashville, makes this spring reverb that I really like. That’s about it. I’ve got a fuzz that I’ll have on sometimes, [an Analog.Man] germanium fuzz. 

“I played my ’60 Tele most of the time. Kenny may have been playing a tweed Deluxe also. I’ve got two of them and I think he was playing one. He had a fuzz pedal that was turned all the way down, but still kind of dirty. He would use that for some solos with the slide. It’s such an awesome sound because he’s got the lipstick pickups with the slide and it’s just a very awesome, unique high end.”

You recorded live as a five-piece and some-times six-piece band with a percussionist and keys. How is the room at Easy Eye Sound set up? Were you all facing each other?

“That’s right. We have some tall baffles with glass in them around the drums, but it’s not enclosed; it’s open at the top, so it was bleeding everywhere. The percussion is sitting face to face with the drummer and then the bass player and me and Kenny were all in a circle. We could all see each other.”

What does that bleed do to the mix? What does it bring to the finished product?

“Here’s the thing: If you don’t fuck up, it’s amazing. If you mess up, it’s a nightmare because you can’t fix it. You just have to be cool with warts-and-all type of recording. I think that that bleed is a big part of the magic of some of the old classic recordings. Most people learn that eventually, that half of their favorite drum sound is bleeding from some other mic. Bleed can be your friend. Let it bleed.”

Why do you think it took so long for you and Patrick to get into the studio with guys from the hill country?

“I’m not really sure. That’s sort of what I was thinking when I was there doing it. You couldn’t have made this record 10 years ago. Somebody told me yesterday, 'This reminds me of old Black Keys.' I’m like, 'No, it doesn’t, because we weren’t that good.' I think it reminded them of the spirit. It’s the same spirit, but it’s a couple of decades later. Having those guys on the record is just a difference maker. I think for both Pat and me it made it more meaningful. That’s really the reason we were there.”

• Delta Kream is out now via Nonesuch Records.

The Black Keys have given stirring performances of Crawling Kingsnake and Going Down South – both taken from their recent blues covers album Delta Kream – during an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.

Recorded at iconic Mississippi blues venue Blue Front Café, the show sees the Ohio duo deliver stellar renditions of the John Lee Hooker and R.L. Burnside originals.

Frontman Dan Auerbach and guitarist Kenny Brown – who not only lent his six-string skills to the album, but is also a former sideman of R. L. Burnside – trade tasteful lead lines and luscious bluesy slides throughout, backed up by drummer Patrick Carney, bassist Eric Deaton and percussionist Sam Bacco.

Delta Kream – which arrived last week via Nonesuch Records – is The Black Keys' first release since their ninth studio album, 2019's Let's Rock. The 11-track record sees the pair pay tribute to their blues inspirations, including Ranie Burnette, Junior Kimbrough and Big Joe Williams.

“This is basically folk music on a certain level, and a lot of this music is like hand-me-downs from generation to generation,” Auerbach recently told Rolling Stone.

“I’m singing lyrics that are like third-generation wrong lyrics. I’m singing a certain version that Junior recorded where maybe he messed up a line, but that’s the only one I know. So we were really just kind of flying by the seat of our pants.”

Delta Kream is available now. Check out its full tracklisting below:

1. Crawling Kingsnake (John Lee Hooker)
2. Louise (Mississippi Fred McDowell)
3. Poor Boy a Long Way From Home (R. L. Burnside)
4. Stay All Night (Junior Kimbrough)
5. Going Down South (R. L. Burnside)
6. Coal Black Mattie (Ranie Burnette)
7. Do the Romp (Junior Kimbrough)
8. Sad Days, Lonely Nights (Junior Kimbrough)
9. Walk with Me (Junior Kimbrough)
10. Mellow Peaches (Big Joe Williams)
11. Come on and Go with Me (Junior Kimbrough)

Last month, The Black Keys announced a new blues covers album, Delta Kream. With the announcement came the release of the album's first single, a loose, limber and explosive take on John Lee Hooker's Crawling King Snake.

Now, the band has released a second single from the album, a swampy, spirited version of R.L. Burnside’s Going Down South that you can check out in the video below.

"I feel like people like Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside to me are every bit as important as Muddy Waters or Howlin' Wolf," Black Keys guitarist/singer Dan Auerbach said in a recent Apple Music 1 interview with Zane Lowe. "And we were living while they were making records and I could go and see them. And it was just, I don't know, I just felt a connection to it."

Set for a May 14 release via Easy Eye Sound/Nonesuch, Delta Kream features covers of songs by R. L. Burnside, John Lee Hooker, Ranie Burnette, Junior Kimbrough and Big Joe Williams. It's the band's follow-up to 2019's Let's Rock.

You can check out the album's cover art and track list below, and preorder it here.

The Black Keys – Delta Kream:

1. Crawling Kingsnake (John Lee Hooker Cover)
2. Louise (Mississippi Fred McDowell Cover)
3. Poor Boy A Long Way From Home (R. L. Burnside Cover)
4. Stay All Night (Junior Kimbrough Cover)
5. Going Down South (R. L. Burnside Cover)
6. Coal Black Mattie (Ranie Burnette Cover)
7. Do the Romp (Junior Kimbrough Cover)
8. Sad Days, Lonely Nights (Junior Kimbrough Cover)
9. Walk with Me (Junior Kimbrough Cover)
10. Mellow Peaches (Big Joe Williams Cover)
11. Come On And Go With Me (Junior Kimbrough Cover)

Here at Guitar World, Thursday’s our favorite day of the week. No, not because it’s so close to the weekend – well, maybe – but because we get to wax lyrical on the six-string soundbites from the past seven days that have most piqued our interest.

This week, we’ve got a brand-new Black Keys cover of a John Lee Hooker classic, a hot new slide-heavy take from Brian May Guitars-repping wunderkind Arielle, an ‘80s-inspired cut from hardcore punk revivalists AFI and a Covid-inspired Mick Jagger/Dave Grohl collaboration, to name a mere few.

So switch off, unwind, and allow us to feed your mind with the latest and greatest tracks from the ever-expanding guitar sphere.

The Black Keys - Crawling Kingsnake

Having conquered arenas, pushed the boundaries of their sound in entirely unexpected directions and branched out on their own with solo albums and production work, Akron, Ohio’s finest blues-rock duo have come full circle on their new album, Delta Kream. 

Featuring 11 covers of blues standards from the likes of R. L. Burnside, Ranie Burnette, Junior Kimbrough, Big Joe Williams and more, the album promises to take the duo back to the bare-bones, fuzz-blasted-guitar-and-drums sound of their early work.

In that vein, the album’s first single, a loose and limber take on John Lee Hooker's Crawling King Snake, is a veritable bounty of guitar greatness. 

Having as much fun as it sounds like he’s had on tape in years, Dan Auerbach keeps it simple vocal-wise, mostly letting his guitar do the talking. With slide acrobatics galore, riffing straight from the swamps and fire-and-brimstone soloing – wedded perfectly to Patrick Carney’s strutting groove – this hypnotic jam will serve to remind skeptics of the air-tight chemistry and vision that made this duo one of the 2010s biggest breakthrough rock acts. (JM)

AFI - Dulcería

Davey Havok, Jade Puget and co teamed up with The Smashing Pumpkins’s mastermind Billy Corgan for this ’80s, new wave-inspired single, the latest track to be released from forthcoming album, Bodies.

Puget deploys some tasty clean tremolo’d lines (and we’re talking both whammy bar and amplitude modulation here) on Dulcería, while waves of synths recall the Pumpkins’ recent Cyr effort.

“Billy and I have a great creative connection when we’re writing together,” says Puget. “It was inspiring to work with such a talented and legendary songwriter and Dulcería is a testament to that.” (MAB)

 Julian Lage – Boo’s Blues 

Taken from his upcoming album Squint, released on June 11, and following on from the recently released Saint Rose, Boo’s Blues is quite simply Julian Lage at his best, with his undisputed grasp on improvisation and masterful art of fingerboard navigation on show in full force.

In a track that largely shies away from playing single-note exchanges – barring a handful of flawless melodic runs – Boo’s Blues boasts a bounty of double-stop slides and a cascade of string-combining riffs, with subtle nuances each time the hook comes around courtesy of Lage’s exploratory and inquisitive approach to melody development.

It’s a Lage track, therefore it’s a tour up and down the fretboard that leaves no stone unturned, no fret unplayed and no listener disappointed. Strap in for the ride and let this jazz extraordinaire in his prime take you on a journey to all four corners of the fingerboard and back – you won’t regret it. (MO)

Light The Torch – Wilting In The Light

The first Light The Torch material since 2018’s Revival, Wilting In The Light comes ahead of the band’s sophomore full length, You Will Be the Death of Me. It sees Howard Jones and co engage in the same super-melodic, but equally-heavy metal that encapsulated their first album, though this time with Whitechapel drummer Alex Rudinger behind the kit.

“The album was a welcome distraction, and we dumped every emotion we had into YWBTDOM,” says vocalist Howard Jones. “Everything we went through individually and together with this album drew Fran, Ryan, and I together. I couldn't be more proud of this album knowing I made it with my family.” (SR)

Lucy Dacus – Hot & Heavy 

This week, the welcome news came that Lucy Dacus would soon return with Home Video, her third album and the follow-up to 2018’s devastatingly brilliant Historian.  

Filled to the brim with nostalgia, yearning, anxiety and a touch of melancholy, Hot & Heavy – the album’s second single – is a lyrical masterclass that dazzles with crackling imagery. 

It’s a lot to unpack, and Dacus’s longtime musical partners-in-crime – Jacob Blizard, Collin Pastore and Jake Finch – give the song everything it needs to breathe, unfurl and build itself up. 

Hot & Heavy is layered enough that you may not even notice Blizard’s scene-coloring six-string embellishments – as rich and multi-faceted as Dacus’s narrative – until your second or perhaps even third spin.

Dacus told us in 2018 that, with Blizard and Pastore, she had “built a vocabulary over time that we didn’t even know we were building,” and that unspoken but profound musical chemistry shines brightly on Hot & Heavy. (JM)

Red Fang - Arrows

Rejoice, for the Portland riff merchants have returned for 2021 – although new album Arrows was actually recorded way back in December 2019 – and this new single is a typically punishing onslaught of fuzz and distortion.

But while the track’s driving stoner riffage is Fang-tastic (sorry – no, really) as always, it’s the metal-tinged outro that cuts as sharp as the katana the band wield throughout the most excellent music video. (MAB)

 Arielle – Inside & Outside 

We’re mere weeks away from Arielle’s hugely anticipated follow-up offering Analog Girl In A Digital World, and the Austin-based singer-songwriter has once again teased what’s in store with the release of new ‘70s-inspired single, Inside & Outside.

Despite the excitement surrounding the quirky Brian May Signature model, it must be remembered that it is merely a tool with which the guitar phenom executes her out-of-this-world guitar work. Ever the sculptor when it comes to lead line construction, the opening exchanges of Arielle’s new track pairs smooth slides with oversized acoustic strums, before the final act delivers a series of delay-soaked slide stabs and rapid-fire scale licks.

If, for whatever reason, you need a friendly reminder that Arielle is indeed one of the most tasteful players around today, the Fleetwood Mac-flavored Inside & Outside serves as a whistle-stop tour through her ever-expanding, guitar-soaked sonic universe – one that will have you counting down the weeks for May 7 when that album is finally released. (MO)

Mick Jagger – Eazy Sleazy (feat. Dave Grohl)

Many artists have penned tunes pertaining to the Covid-19 pandemic, and this week Rolling Stones leader Mick Jagger added his into the mix. Together with Dave Grohl, the pair reference “TikTok”, “Zoom calls”, and “virtual premieres” over a quintessentially classic-rock arrangement of distorted guitars, pummeling rhythms and earworm hooks.

According to Grohl – who handled guitar, drums and bass duties on the track – it was “beyond a dream come true” to join Jagger on Eazy Sleazy. “It’s hard to put into words what recording this song with Sir Mick Jagger means to me,” he wrote in a Twitter post. “And it’s the song of the summer, without a doubt!” (SR)

DMX - X Moves (Ft. Bootsy Collins, Steve Howe & Ian Paice)

The loss of Earl Simmons – known as DMX – to a heart attack last week was a devastating one for music. One of hip-hop’s most singular, charismatic MCs, Simmons could take whatever track was thrown his way and steal the show, though never in a self-serving way – it was just near-impossible to take your eyes and ears off of him.

His death gives the triumphant, nimble X Moves, a newly-released collaboration pairing Simmons with a dream-team power trio – funk master Bootsy Collins on bass, Yes’s Steve Howe on guitar and Deep Purple’s Ian Paice on drums – a bittersweet edge. 

Simmons (with some help from Collins, who offers up a typically cosmic verse of his own) dances over Paice’s funky and, of course, thunderous rhythm and Howe’s tightly coiled riffing, with characteristic lyrical jabs and sleights of hand. Though playing for the song throughout, Howe matches Simmons’ explosive delivery with some high-arching leads of his own – always in just the right places.

What a wonder it would have been to see this unlikely quartet tear the roof off with this tune live… (JM)

Silverstein - Bankrupt

Silverstein were on the verge of setting out on a 20th anniversary tour when Covid hit. Instead, the post-hardcore heroes used that time to write and record new material, including this rager of a single.

Bankrupt displays all the hallmarks of a band who, even two decades in, are still updating and refining their sound. Josh Bradford and Paul Marc Rousseau deploy a colossal slow-bend juggernaut of a main riff here, while the metalcore-inspired production touches add a vital edge. (MAB)

Venues – Shifting Colors

German five-piece Venues have the perfect cocktail of modern metal elements: destructive breakdowns, pounding guitar riffs and endlessly catchy vocal hooks courtesy of clean vocalist Daniela 'Lela' Gruber. And they showcase it with full force on new single Shifting Colors.

The Evanescence-style single-note piano intro might have you fooled as to where the track will take you, but the band is on hand within a few seconds to remind you exactly who you’re listening to.

Throughout, the group weave almost-pop-style vocal melodies into drop-tuned heavy metal riffage – helped by unclean vocalist Robin Baumann – constructing a track that’s sure to get the pit spinning and the crowds screaming when it’s taken to the stage. (SR)

girl in red – you stupid bitch 

Weeks after she released the lead single from her upcoming debut album, girl in red has returned with new track you stupid bitch – a certified high-octane indie-rock head banger that will force itself onto the playlists of guitar fanatics around the world.

No tentative steps are taken by girl in red – aka Marie Ulven – in her latest outing, which throws listeners in at the deep end via a riotous, guitar-heavy opener. While gain-infused power chords descend down the fingerboard, fuzz-drenched lead lines and vocal hooks join forces with a wall-shaking bass and drum machine to form an impervious wall of ridiculously tasty, unrelenting rock sound.

If girl in red isn’t currently on your radar, she most definitely should be, and You Stupid Bitch is merely a taste of what this guitar-slinging alt-pop star has in store for us when if i could make it go quiet is released on April 30. (MO)

After announcing new blues covers album, Delta Kream, yesterday, The Black Keys have officially released its first single, a version of John Lee Hooker’s 1949 track, Crawling King Snake.

The new rendition, like the album on which it appears, sees Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney go back to their roots, not only in terms of their influences, but also The Black Keys’ grittier, slide-heavy early material.

A bolstered band lineup makes for a more expansive sound than those early Keys cuts, however, with the addition of guitarist Kenny Brown and bassist Eric Deaton – the former sidemen of R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, whose tracks are covered on the record – as well as percussionist Sam Bacco and organ player Ray Jacildo.

Crawling Kingsnake – which Auerbach first heard via Kimbrough’s own rendition, rather than Hooker’s version or the Big Joe Williams original – is among 11 tracks featured on the band’s forthcoming 10th studio effort, which includes covers of tracks by Fred McDowell, Ranie Burnette and Big Joe Williams.

“This is basically folk music on a certain level, and a lot of this music is like hand-me-downs from generation to generation,” Auerbach told Rolling Stone.

“I’m singing lyrics that are like third-generation wrong lyrics. I’m singing a certain version that Junior recorded where maybe he messed up a line, but that’s the only one I know. So we were really just kind of flying by the seat of our pants.”

Delta Kream is out on May 14 via Nonesuch, and available to preorder via the band's official website.

The album’s full tracklisting is as follows:

1. Crawling Kingsnake (John Lee Hooker)
2. Louise (Mississippi Fred McDowell)
3. Poor Boy a Long Way From Home (R. L. Burnside)
4. Stay All Night (Junior Kimbrough)
5. Going Down South (R. L. Burnside)
6. Coal Black Mattie (Ranie Burnette)
7. Do the Romp (Junior Kimbrough)
8. Sad Days, Lonely Nights (Junior Kimbrough)
9. Walk with Me (Junior Kimbrough)
10. Mellow Peaches (Big Joe Williams)
11. Come on and Go with Me (Junior Kimbrough)

The Black Keys have announces a brand-new 11-track blues covers album, entitled Delta Kream.

Arriving May 14, the compilation is the duo's first release since their ninth studio album, 2019's Let's Rock, and sees the band pay tribute to their blues inspirations, including R. L. Burnside, John Lee Hooker, Ranie Burnette, Junior Kimbrough and Big Joe Williams.

Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney have released the album's first single – a rendition of John Lee Hooker's 1949 track, Crawling King Snake – exclusively via their online fan club, The Lonely Boys and Girls Club.

Teasing the project last week (April 8), the band shared a link of a YouTube video of John Lee Hooker's original recording.

Delta Kream is available for pre-order from Thursday (April 15). Check out the album's full tracklisting below:

1. Crawling Kingsnake’ (John Lee Hooker Cover)
2. Louise (Mississippi Fred McDowell Cover)
3. Poor Boy A Long Way From Home (R. L. Burnside Cover)
4. Stay All Night (Junior Kimbrough Cover)
5. Going Down South (R. L. Burnside Cover)
6. Coal Black Mattie (Ranie Burnette Cover)
7. Do the Romp (Junior Kimbrough Cover)
8. Sad Days, Lonely Nights (Junior Kimbrough Cover)
9. Walk with Me (Junior Kimbrough Cover)
10. Mellow Peaches (Big Joe Williams Cover)
11. Come On And Go With Me (Junior Kimbrough Cover)

The Ohio duo recently celebrated the tenth anniversary of their 2010 album Brothers, releasing a deluxe edition in December, 2020. The re-release features new tracks Chop and Change, Keep My Name Outta Your Mouth and Black Mud Part II, alongside the album's originals, like Next Girl, Howlin’ For You, Everlasting Light and Tighten Up.

Can you judge a decade by its riffs? When looking at the years 2010 to 2019 within the context of the electric guitar, the top 20 guitar solos - as voted by you - show us where the decade has taken guitar as a lead instrument. But we need something fundamental to hang our judgment on, and the guitar riff is exactly that.

With solos, we see where players are taking technique forward and the compositional nous needed to complement the song, but riffs, the building blocks of guitar-driven music, they are the moments that stick with us by design.

This end-of-decade list tells us a few things. It tells us the masters still have plenty sap in the tree, that they have lost little of their power to land a guitar-driven hook. It also shows us that the riff can be bent into new shapes and still work as a musical motif, burying its way into our consciousness. 

Your number one is one such riff, a shapeshifter with such a clever rhythmic identity that little wonder it was 13 years in the making.

1. Tool - 7empest

Guitarist: Adam Jones

The year’s most anticipated record, Fear Inoculum is a typically challenging long-form exercise in the careful evolution of Tool’s sound.

It’s a heady work of atmospherics, with Adam Jones at times occupying himself with the layering of textures, swells of feedback, but then he’ll play something like 7empest and pin it all on a succession of riffs bearing his unique rhythmic fingerprint, and that glorious tone.

There’s no-one else on this astral plane who plays the guitar like this.

2. Dream Theater - Paralyzed

Guitarist: John Petrucci

A mid-tempo lunker to remind anyone who needs reminding that however expansive John Petrucci’s musical vision for Dream Theater might be, it’s all rooted in the primal architecture of the heavy metal riff. 

Here it’s as though Petrucci mapped out the notes, then played around until he found the pocket of the groove, and when everyone joins in that’s when the magic happens and it all comes together.

3. Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know?

Guitarists: Jamie Cook, Alex Turner

Now here’s a lesson in how space can make a riff pop, and, heck, give it a sense of the profound. Do I Wanna Know? is played at a slack tempo, a late-night groove, and it shouldn’t be any faster, for this is exactly what the song needs. 

Like the best riffs, it’s simple, the song structure is simple, and yet it’s to Cook and Turner’s eternal credit that it sounds so full.

4. Metallica - Atlas, Rise!

Guitarists: James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett

A vintage Hetfield haymaker that sounds as though it may have reentered the Earth’s atmosphere after traveling forward through time from 1989.

Certainly, Hardwired… saw Metallica hooking their old thrash sound up to some crude lightning to reanimate it for the 21st century. An ever-present on the setlist, it’s another city-leveler from Hetfield’s jackhammer right hand.

5. The Black Keys - Lonely Boy

Guitarist: Dan Auerbach

How do you know when Dan Auerbach’s riff on Lonely Boy is working? Is it when it has you reaching for the guitar? Maybe. Because it makes you want to dance? Well, sure. But really it’s when it’s stuck in your head for the day, with a groove that won’t quit, a Billy Gibbons move if ever there was one. 

What is really so cool about this one is Auerbach’s use of a Boss PS-5 Super Shifter, ably demonstrating just how you can augment blues-rock with modern gear and reinvent it for the next generation.

6. Alter Bridge - Still Remains

Guitarist: Mark Tremonti, Myles Kennedy

Where many of the riffs on this list are notable for their simplicity, here’s one that’ll twist you into a pretzel in your efforts to replicate its exotic rhythm and on-point phrasing.

The note choice, of course, really makes it pop, but the tempo and rhythm construct an almighty groove that’s one of Alter Bridge’s finest moments on record.

7. Ghost - Cirice

Guitarist: A Nameless Ghoul

Ghost’s sense of the theatrical has always leaned towards the melodramatic, with a sound that’s pitched somewhere between Candlemass’s stately operatic doom, King Diamond’s diabolica in musica, and classic rock deep cuts, and Cirice articulates this perfectly. 

It’s everything that Ghost is about; it’s not as though the riff is super-simple, but it has an undead, automatic quality nonetheless, testimony to the instinctual power of riff-writing.

8. Gojira - Stranded

Guitarists: Joe Duplantier, Christian Andreu

When the world first heard Gojira it was like seeing an electrical storm for the first time, as Joe Duplantier and Christian Andreu bent an ostensibly death-metal sound into new forms. 

But six albums in, Stranded proved they still had the capacity to catch us unawares, applying a DigiTech Whammy pedal to further distance the lead riff from its melodic responsibilities. After all, it is such alien rhythms that get you moving.

9. Polyphia - G.O.A.T.

Guitarists: Timothy Henson, Scott LePage

To listen to G.O.A.T. for the first time is to grasp desperately for pop-cultural references to anchor you in this world, but somehow they are not even to put what Polyphia are doing in a broader context. Really, how could they?

There is a Zappa-esque playfulness, there’s metal - sort of - an avowedly 21st-century jazz-metal sensibility, funk... But it’s the execution, the expert-level showmanship, and the sheer imagination that makes it.

10. Black Sabbath - God is Dead?

Guitarist: Tony Iommi

Having invented heavy metal, before delivering at least seven, arguably eight stone-cold classic albums that took the craft further, Tony Iommi has done his bit and then some for the black t-shirt demographic. 

But on 13, Sabbath’s ultimate studio album, he proves that the talent for expressing the uncanny and the baleful in distorted guitar is undiminished by time, with God is Dead a typically slow-handed, serpentine work of the macabre.

11. Van Halen - She’s the Woman

Guitarist: Eddie Van Halen

We all too often get carried away by EVH’s pyrotechnic lead playing that we forget his rhythm chops reside in a similar state of off-the-charts ridiculousness.

She’s the Woman is a timely reminder that - as the greatest hard-rock player of all time - the man behind Panama, Atomic Punk, Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love and so on is equally blessed in riff-writing. 

His style is super-kinetic, employing pedal points, harmonic squawks and little conversational asides, and She’s the Woman is just so... Eddie Van Halen.

12. Gary Clark Jr. - Bright Lights

Guitarist: Gary Clark Jr.

First off, Gary Clark Jr.’s tone is ridiculous on this. Secondly, for all he has this chameleonic quality to his sound, absorbing the blues and taking it into a contemporary context of his making, Clark has the ability to make the riff wholly at peace with the song, letting it dissolve within the groove.

This is another great use of space; just let the groove groove and all will be well.

13. Greta Van Fleet - When the Curtain Falls

Guitarist: Jake Kiszka

Jake Kiszka sure didn’t invent this sound, and there’s no way you can listen to Greta Van Fleet without thinking of classic rock titans of yore, and Led Zeppelin in particular, especially here, but what When the Curtain Falls lacks in originality it makes up for in conviction, and Kiszka is seriously gifted in the art of using what sounds like a bluesy turnaround as a motif that snakes around the jam and holds it all together. His tone is righteous, too.

14. Daft Punk ft. Pharrell Williams - Get Lucky

Guitarist: Nile Rogers

What price could one put on Nile Roger’s wrist? Watching his right-hand as he plays, it’s as though it is spring-loaded, and his immaculate playing on this Daft Punk/Pharrell Williams mega-hit is as sweet as you’ll hear.

It’s a shining example of disco-funk guitar’s soft power in establishing melody, rhythm and emotional cadence in song.

15. Muse - Reapers

Guitarist: Matt Bellamy

Reapers features every trick in Matt Bellamy’s book. The playing here is phenomenal, its technical dexterity matched only by its imagination, but, again, as with the likes of Petrucci, Bellamy knows instinctively when to trust his instincts and hang the song on something simple.

It’s a groove, a big human footprint in a Muse sound that can be a dizzying, alien soundscape.

16. Alice in Chains - Stone

Guitarists: Jerry Cantrell, William DuVall

It’s the string bend that pulls the audience out of its comfort zone. Jerry Cantrell leans all the way into it here, and it makes Stone gnarly, for sure, but it also gives it a haunting, mourning quality. 

Hell, it sounds like someone is in pain, a dinosaur with a bone tusk in its side. But that’s what AIC specialize in, creating bestial moments and resolving them in a a chorus. This has to be one of the most satisfying riffs to play, and the louder the better.

17. Foo Fighters - Rope

Guitarists: Dave Grohl, Chris Shiflett

The song starts with some tape echo on some chord stabs and then falls into a staccato groove that’s quite alien for Foo Fighters.

But songwriting, as Dave Grohl well knows, is all about tension and release, and the verse riff of Rope is 100 per cent tension - as close to math rock as you’ll find the Foos - that’s just waiting for the invigorating release of a chorus.

18. Joe Satriani - God is Crying

Guitarist: Joe Satriani

As one of Satch’s finest moments, Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards deserved something special like this to close it.

God is Crying reminds us that Satriani’s sound is rooted in hard rock and that is a business in which you don’t get anywhere if you don’t know how to put a riff together.

Of course, being Joe Satriani, it’s always going to go somewhere melodically, and somewhere special at that.

19. Animals as Leaders - Physical Education

Guitarist: Tosin Abasi

It might be accurate to call this djent but it feels a little redundant to confine what Abasi is doing here to a sub-genre of metal. Here, we have Abasi’s rhythmic sensibilities working in close collaboration with his melodic ambition.

This is a riff, sure, but it’s one you’d be hard-pressed to hum. On this list, Nile Rogers’ Get Lucky is its closest in terms of approach and playing.

20. St. Vincent - Cruel

Guitarist: Annie Clark aka St. Vincent

The genius with St. Vincent is always in her appreciation of the composition as a whole, and where her guitar can lift it. This is another bravura exercise in using space to enhance the efficacy of the guitar parts. 

That sounds like we’re talking about a heating ventilation system in some office block, but really, songwriting is a form of construction, one piece at a time.

When it comes time for St. Vincent’s riff, it’s simple, it’s kinetic, and it speaks the audience’s language. That’s what riffs do; they talk to us.

When The Black Keys released Let’s Rock earlier this year, it represented the first new music from singer and guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney in five years. But to hear Auerbach tell it, when they entered his own Easy Eye Sound in Nashville to get to work on the record, their ninth full-length since 2002, it was as if no time had passed at all.

“We just started playing music and this is what came out,” he explains simply.

In conversation, Auerbach can occasionally be a man of few words, but in this case he’s hardly being dismissive or evasive. In truth, he and Carney did, for all intents, enter the studio and just, well, rocked, pulling together 12 tunes from absolutely zero previously created material - and producing the entire affair themselves.

It’s an unusual way for a multi-platinum act to work in this day and age, but, in Auerbach’s mind, it makes perfect sense for the duo.

“When you’ve been in a band with somebody for 18 years, we don’t even have to talk about things - we just do it,” he says.

In some respects, what the pair achieved on Let’s Rock recalls the more bare-bones riff ’n’ rhythm sound of early Black Keys records like their 2002 debut The Big Come Up and 2003’s Thickfreakness.

The album’s 12 tracks are short, focused, hooky and unequivocally guitar-centric, from the crushing power-chord hooks of opener Shine a Little Light to the gnarled boogie of Eagle Birds, the slow-burning soul of Walk Across the Water to the overdriven guitar scuzz of Every Little Thing.

At the same time, similar to more recent Keys records, there’s also expanded instrumentation (most significantly, Auerbach adding bass behind his guitar parts) and less of a strict adherence to traditional blues forms.

The result is one of the duo’s most overall satisfying records. And if, after half a decade apart (during which time both members stayed plenty busy, writing, recording and producing with others), it sounds as if Auerbach and Carney haven’t lost a step, well, there’s a reason for that.

“Pat and I have this special relationship where when we get together it just sounds like the Black Keys,” Auerbach says. “We don’t even have to try.”

Auerbach recently phoned Guitar World from Easy Eye Sound - where he “lives” - to talk about the making of Let’s Rock.

In the following conversation, he discusses the gear he used on the record, the unexpected guitarist who helped to inspire the sound and direction of the new music, and his and Carney’s unique creative process in the studio, which, in this instance, saw them write and record in a quick, spontaneous manner.

And the secret to their musical partnership?

“The thing that really fucks up any band, really stifles creativity, is being insecure and not being able to self-edit - not being able to work around certain criticisms,” Auerbach says.

“That’s always the thing that’s crippling. If you can’t get over that, you can’t make music. But Pat and I are just so beyond that.”

It’s been five years since the last Black Keys album; at what point did you make the decision that it was time to get back in the studio together?

"Well, about a year-and-a-half-ago I made a record with this guy named Glenn Schwartz, who was from northeastern Ohio and who was the original guitarist in the James Gang.

"He was Joe Walsh’s guitar hero. Joe said the first time he saw Glenn Schwartz was in 1966 or 1967 and he was wearing, like, purple velvet bell bottoms and no shirt and playing an Epiphone Casino up on somebody’s shoulders in a bar. [Schwartz, who passed away in November 2018 at age 78, was eventually replaced by Walsh in the band.]

"Back when I was 17, 18, 19 years old, Glenn would still play at this bar in Cleveland every Thursday night, and I would go to see him. Even then he was old, but he still rocked like crazy.

"So I decided to invite Glenn to my studio in Nashville and make a record with him. I invited Joe [Walsh] out too, and we played all of Glenn’s old songs. And just watching him play those songs reminded me of all of the licks that I borrowed from him when I was first making Black Keys records.

"It put me right back in that place and made me fall in love with the electric guitar all over again. I felt the same way I did when I used to watch him when I was 18. I really didn’t realize how much he had influenced me until I did that session. It just hit me like a ton of bricks. And right when I was done with that session, we put the Black Keys on the books.

Let’s Rock is a more straightforward and in-your-face guitar record than the previous Black Keys album, 2014’s Turn Blue. Was that partly a result of your having been reintroduced to Glenn’s playing?

"Yeah. That’s definitely where my head was at. And you know, when Pat and I got back together, we never talked about inviting anyone else to come and play or to co-produce. I just sat down at the guitar and Pat sat down at the drums and that was it. We started playing and we didn’t really change the formula at all for the whole record."

This time you also went into the studio without having worked out any material beforehand.

"Everything was improvised. We would just sit down and start playing, figuring out what we liked and getting away from what we didn’t like. We were following the songs, just trying to find something that felt good. We would compose instrumentals, with intros and verses and turnarounds and, you know, maybe a bridge here or a solo there or an outro here.

"We’d figure all that shit out and then cut it like that and try to get it within the second or third take. So every single song has that live performance at the foundation of it. And then after we got the take, that’s when I’d go in and start working on vocals and try to find melodies. It was like writing in reverse, almost."

How long did it take before you stumbled onto something that was album-worthy?

"Actually, the very first idea that we had is on the record. It turned into the song Breaking Down. That was the very first time we sat down to play together in however many years, and just immediately we were making music."

In that environment, how does that actual creative process proceed? Are you playing off of what Patrick might do rhythmically, or is he responding to a riff or chord progression on the guitar?

"It’s both. There are no rules. We just go by feel, because we’ve worked together for so long now. So we’re able to work really fast. It was right into it. We had no pre-production meeting, we had no talk of what we were looking to do. We didn’t really listen to much music in the control room or anything to get inspired."

Did you approach your solos in the same sort of spontaneous manner?

"Yeah. More than half of the solos on the record are the improvised takes from the original foundation tracks. I just fucking kept ‘em."

For many artists, the studio is the place you go after you’ve spent weeks or months or even years writing and demoing and rehearsing and doing preproduction and so on. It’s a means for getting your finished idea down on tape, so to speak, but what’s interesting about you is that you seem to view the studio as a creative tool in and of itself.

"Well, this is the thing: I live in the studio. I’m here every day, whether I’m doing a Black Keys record or not. So I’m used to working in here. My work is creative and it’s different every day and it’s exciting. Because of that I think my perspective is just different."

What about when you’re playing live? Is that same spontaneity and ability to improvise that you have in the studio also present onstage?

"Not really. I think the thing about the Black Keys is we started as a studio band. We really love being in the studio and making sounds and recording. Being on the stage was never the thing that was so near and dear to us. So making that transition from the studio to the stage, even with as long as we’ve been playing, it’s still slow. [Laughs]

"It’s like a different experience. We don’t really improv onstage. We have a couple of spots where we can do a little this or that, but it’s not a lot of improv. Instead of making music, we’re performing."

Let’s talk about some of the gear you used on the new record. What were your preferred guitars and amps?

"A guitar that I used a whole bunch was a 1964 Guild Starfire III, with those Guild mini-humbuckers and the Guild label Bigsby. And there was a Gretsch Chet Atkins named Rudy. I’ve kind of fallen in love with that guitar. I used those two a lot.

"I also used my Ibanez SG 'lawsuit' guitar quite a bit, and my Vinnie Bell electric sitar, which actually belonged to [session guitarist] Vinnie Bell. It was used on movie soundtracks and a bunch of hits from the '60s, '70s and '80s. You can hear it on the new record on the intro and turnarounds on Breaking Down.

"Then there was a Gibson Everly Brothers acoustic and also my Teisco Del Rey four-pickup guitar that used to belong to Hound Dog Taylor. I used that to double up some of the rhythms on some of the tracks I did with the Guild.

"As far as amplifiers, I’ve got a little Flot-A-Tone that I used quite a bit, and a little tweed Deluxe copy, made by a friend of mine in Cleveland named Nick Miller. And sometimes if I needed some choppy tremolo I used a silverface Deluxe Reverb. But that’s pretty much it."

How about effects?

"I had a few fuzzes - my Marshall Supa Fuzz and my Ibanez Standard Fuzz. The Ibanez is from the late-'60s, and I’ve been using it since the first Black Keys record.

"I also had an old Prescription Electronics Face Lift. It has a fuzz channel and an octave channel but I only used the octave channel. And I used a Uni-Vibe a little bit, and also a [Catalinbread] Belle Epoch delay."

Your rhythm tones are so distinct from song to song, and in many cases - Shine a Little Light and Eagle Birds from the new album would be examples - the sound itself is arguably as central to the character of the song as the riff or chord progression you’re playing. Does a tone or an effect ever guide a song during the creative process, or do the sounds come later on?

"Oh, no - that’s all during. When you find that little sweet spot where the guitar’s really kind of singing… that’s the fun of it. Especially when it’s just a two-piece, because you get those little ghost notes and things. Makes it a little bouncier somehow. I think playing into the right effect is kind of important to creativity."

Can you give any examples of songs where that happened on this record?

"Well, like you said, Eagle Birds is one. That one started with that kind of, basically, T-Model Ford guitar rhythm. He’s one of my guitar heroes, and so I just started playing a rhythm in that style.

"I think I had a single-transistor fuzz going, or maybe some sort of treble booster. Because I really do love treble booster, especially into the right tube amp; it’s just so sweet. So it was all about having the right sound, and being able to touch the strings real light, but have the tone be explosive.

"And then Every Little Thing, the intro to that was me playing the Guild through, it might have been the Face Lift pedal. And that’s a good sound.

"So in general I was trying to get sounds that I hadn’t gotten before. That’s why I switched out guitars a lot and went for some different combinations. Using the right Gretsch with the right amp with the right spring reverb, it’s just like, 'Goddamn!'

Over the course of your 18 years with the Black Keys has your approach to guitar tone changed significantly? Do you feel you’re looking for something different now than you were years ago?

"I think that ultimately I’m always going for kind of the same thing I like and that I’ve always liked. And that’s what was so amazing to me about seeing Glenn Schwartz again. It was him just fucking blowing my mind all over by doing the same exact thing he’d always done. [Laughs] I’ve always been such a sucker for that."

You like what you like…

"Yeah. And I’ve been blessed that I was able to hear people like Glenn Schwartz in person. I’ve been blessed that I was able to hear people like Link Wray in person. Because that changed me.

"When you get to see a wild-ass guitarist playing through a Fender Quad Reverb run at its sweet spot – I mean, that’s crazy-sounding in a tiny bar. It can really transport you. And for me, it did."

Now that the Black Keys are back up and running with a new album and tour, do you look forward to the next thing or do you just take it one day at a time?

"I think I take it one week at a time! I look at my weekly planner and I think about that week and I just focus on that. Because for me every week is something new.

"So the only thing I’ve been thinking right now is that me and Dan Johnson, who’s been my guitar tech since I was 17 years old, going to see Glenn Schwartz – we’ve been trying to figure out what guitars I’m going to bring on the road."

Do you tend to bring out the same guitars you used in the studio on a particular record?

"That’s what I’m trying to figure out if I’m going to do this time. Because I don’t know that I want to bring some of those guitars out on the road. Do I want to bring that nice-ass Gretsch and get it all beat up? I don’t know."

In addition to not wanting to damage an old guitar, vintage gear also can be temperamental and inconsistent from room to room…

"Yeah, exactly. That red guitar I tour with, that Harmony by Heath [H78]? Everybody thinks of it as my main guitar because it’s the one I play live. But it’s just a good touring guitar - I don’t know that I’ve ever even used it on a recording.

"But then I have this ‘58 Rickenbacker that’s a beauty, but I just don’t know that I want to expose it to changing temperatures and all this stuff. The thing plays so true because it gets to sit in this climate-controlled studio and just be pampered. So maybe that’s where it needs to stay. [Laughs]

"I think I’ve gotta continue to pamper some of these guitars!

There are a lot of online guitar tutorials out there, but if you really want to learn how to write songs – or, as Dan Auerbach contends, are interested in buying a new pool – you’d do well to check out the Black Keys MasterCourse.

The Let’s Rock duo have unveiled a new Funny or Die trailer in which they outline their mock online class, with Dan Auerbach displaying his cadre of super-expensive guitars and drummer Patrick Carney proudly christening himself the band’s front man.

If this sounds like your sort of learning environment, check out the video above.

As Carney contends, “After this course you’ll be able to write music like the pros.”

“Unless you’re not naturally gifted like us,” Auerbach adds. “Then we can’t really help you.”

The Black Keys have shared a live performance of “Go,” the second single from their ninth studio album, “Let’s Rock."

The clip was shot during a recent rehearsal for their upcoming tour, in front of a small audience made up of fan club members.

The performance features the Keys’ touring band—guitarists Andrew Gabbard and Delicate Steve and bassist Zachary Gabbard—alongside Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney.

The Black Keys kick off their “Let’s Rock” tour on September 23 in Denver. You can check out the full itinerary here.

The Black Keys have shared the official music video for a new song, “Go.” The track comes off their forthcoming album, Let’s Rock, due June 28 via Easy Eye Sound/Nonesuch Records.

The new video, directed by Bryan Schlam, finds Black Keys members Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney undergoing band therapy after five years apart. Said Carney, “It was great making this video with Bryan, partially because it was filmed at the very type of place it is making fun of."

Added Auerbach, “The video was fun, but we still haven’t spoken.”

Let’s Rock was written, tracked live and produced by Auerbach and Carney at Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville and features backing vocals from Leisa Hans and Ashley Wilcoxson. Said Carney, “The record is like a homage to electric guitar. We took a simple approach and trimmed all the fat like we used to.”

You can check out all upcoming Black Keys tour dates below.

The Black Keys Let’s Rock tour dates 

Sep 21 — Las Vegas, NV — Life Is Beautiful+
Sep 23 — Denver, CO — Pepsi Center*
Sep 24 — Kansas City, MO — Sprint Center*
Sep 25 — St. Louis, MO — Enterprise Center*
Sep 27 — Chicago, IL — United Center*
Sep 28 — Minneapolis, MN — Target Center*
Sep 30 — Cleveland, OH — Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse*
Oct 01 — Nashville, TN — Bridgestone Arena*
Oct 02 — Columbus, OH — Nationwide Arena*
Oct 04 — Milwaukee, WI — Fiserv Forum#
Oct 05 — Detroit, MI — Little Caesars Arena#
Oct 07 — Pittsburgh, PA — PPG Paints Arena#
Oct 08 — Grand Rapids, MI — Van Andel Arena#
Oct 09 — Toronto, ON — Scotiabank Arena#
Oct 11 — Boston, MA — TD Garden#
Oct 12 — Washington, DC — The Anthem#
Oct 14 — Philadelphia, PA — Wells Fargo Arena#
Oct 15 — Brooklyn, NY — Barclays Center#
Oct 16 — Washington, DC — The Anthem%
Nov 05 — Sunrise, FL — BB&T Center^
Nov 06 — Orlando, FL — Amway Center^
Nov 08 — Raleigh, NC — PNC Arena^
Nov 09 — Atlanta, GA — State Farm Arena^
Nov 12 — Houston, TX — Toyota Center^
Nov 13 — Austin, TX — Frank Erwin Center^
Nov 14 — Fort Worth, TX — Dickies Arena^
Nov 16 — Phoenix, AZ — Talking Stick Resort Arena^
Nov 17 — San Diego, CA — Pechanga Arena^
Nov 19 — Los Angeles, CA — The Forum^
Nov 20 — San Francisco, CA — Chase Center^
Nov 22 — Portland, OR — Moda Center^
Nov 23 — Tacoma, WA — Tacoma Dome^
Nov 24 — Vancouver, BC — Pepsi Live at Rogers Arena^

+Festival Date 
*w/ Modest Mouse and *repeat repeat
# w/ Modest Mouse and Jessy Wilson
^ w/ Modest Mouse and Shannon & the Clams
% w/ Modest Mouse and Jimmy "Duck" Holmes

The Black Keys have unveiled a new song, “Lo/ Hi” the first new music from the band since their 2014 album, Turn Blue. You can check out the track above.

“Lo/ Hi” was written and produced by Black Keys members Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, and recorded at Auerbach's Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville.

In 2014 Auerbach spoke to Guitar World about the process in the studio for Turn Blue:  “We didn’t have any songs written,” he said. “We had no sense of what we were gonna do. We just went in blind. The blind leading the blind. We didn’t have any real goal other than to make an album. 

"So we wrote songs every day. We just improvised. I guess the goal was to try to have a song done every day, maybe every two days at the most. And we did.”

"Lo/Hi" is available to stream or download here.

Learn how to play one of the best albums of 2011 -- The Black Keys' El Camino -- courtesy of this artist-approved tab book, which is available now at the Guitar World Online Store.

The softcover book by Cherry Lane Music contains spot-on transcriptions of all 11 songs on the garage/blues-rocking album by Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, which was produced and co-written by Danger Mouse.

Songs include:

• "Dead and Gone"
• "Gold on the Ceiling"
• "Hell of a Season"
• "Little Black Submarines"
• "Lonely Boy"
• "Mind Eraser"
• "Money Maker"
• "Nova Baby"
• "Run Right Back"
• "Sister"
• "Stop Stop"

For more information, or to order the book for $19.99, head to the Guitar World Online Store.

The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach and ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons are on the cover of the current issue of Guitar World. Read an excerpt of that story right here.

In case you missed last week's season premiere of the History Channel's American Pickers, you'll get another chance to catch it tonight.

The episode features singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys.

Auerbach—along with Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz of Antique Archaeology in Nashville—check out a Chet Atkins model Gretsch guitar—that once belonged to someone named "Rudy."

Auerbach isn't the first Nashville guitar picker to appear on American Pickers; Jack White acquired a decorative elephant head on a 2012 episode of the show.

The Auerbach episode of American Pickers airs 8 to 9 p.m. EST today (May 13) and midnight to 1 a.m. May 14. You can check out a preview of the episode below.

For more about American Pickers, visit history.com.

This is an excerpt from the September 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the rest of this story, plus features on Dan Auerbach's off-beat guitars, Eric Clapton and his new J.J. Cale tribute album, Judas Priest, 17 Amazing practice amps, columns, tabs and reviews of new gear from Epiphone, ESP Guitars, Visual Sound, Blackstar, G&L Guitars, Ibanez and more, check out the September 2014 issue at the Guitar World Online Store.

Black and Blue: Dan Auerbach tells how the Black Keys made their latest hit album, Turn Blue, in the midst of personal hardship, using a handful of guitars, amps and effects and a whole lotta spontaneous inspiration.

Black Keys guitarist and singer Dan Auerbach is obsessed with arcane, el-cheapo mid–20th century guitars: Teiscos, Nationals, Supros, Silvertones.

But that fixation is rivaled only by his passion for collecting vintage vinyl and under-the-radar new music. “Yesterday, I was listening to some dub [reggae] that I have on vinyl,” he says. “And this morning, I was listening to some South American Sixties psych music.”

When it comes to current music, Auerbach’s passion for contemporary hip-hop is balanced by a fondness for less mainstream fare, like moody Canadian act Timber Timbre and U.K. retro-pop unit Metronomy. “I love their English Riviera album,” the guitarist raves. “There’s some really amazing plectrum bass playing on it. I just love the record’s experimentation and sonic limitlessness.”

In one way or another, these variegated influences find their way into the Black Keys’ own music. Their new album, Turn Blue, takes them further along the ambitious sonic trajectory they’ve been following ever since Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney teamed up with über producer Brian Burton, a.k.a. Danger Mouse (Gnarls Barkley, Beck, Gorillaz, Norah Jones) for the Keys’ 2008 album, Attack & Release. Like all the Black Keys’ records, Turn Blue’s sound is firmly based in the garage-rock interplay between Auerbach’s bluesy squawk-box aggression and Carney’s flailing frenzy. But over this foundation, the Keys have woven a mesmerizing web of ghostly synths and eerie sonic textures. Auerbach plays bass as well as guitar on the album, and he splits keyboard duties with Danger Mouse.

“Anybody can jump on any instrument at any time,” Auerbach says. “There are really no rules when we’re in the studio.”

With its stately tempo, lazily strummed acoustic guitar and spectral synth line, the album’s opening track, “Weight of Love,” invites comparison with the classic-rock majesty of Pink Floyd. “We love that kind of music,” Auerbach admits, “so it’s in us to be capable of doing that. It’s just something that we’ve never tried to go for before. But we had the time and that little spark of creativity to start us in that direction, and on a couple of songs we saw it through.”

“Weight of Love” also is the most guitar-solo-intensive Black Keys track to date. Auerbach’s psychedelicized midsong magic carpet ride is followed up by a soaring outro excursion to the creative dark side that lurks somewhere underneath his regular-guy, flannel-and-denim Midwestern exterior.

“That was all spur of the moment,” he says. “We’d just built that song up, and the end has this massive crescendo where everybody’s really going for it. It really called for a guitar solo, and I just improvised something. Then I put a harmony guitar on top of it. Honestly, it was 20 minutes and done, not something I really labored on very long. Everything on this record happened very naturally.”

Auerbach seems to have little or no use for premeditation. He appears to be proud of the fact that he and Carney were completely unprepared when they entered the studio to make True Blue, the heavily anticipated follow-up to 2011’s strong-selling, Grammy-winning and critically lauded El Camino.

“We didn’t have any songs written,” he says. “We had no sense of what we were gonna do. We just went in blind. The blind leading the blind. We didn’t have any real goal other than to make an album. So we wrote songs every day. We just improvised. I guess the goal was to try to have a song done every day, maybe every two days at the most. And we did.”

Sessions for Turn Blue began at a studio in Benton Harbor, Michigan, called the Key Club, where Auerbach and Carney worked on their own. Danger Mouse joined them for subsequent sessions at Sunset Sound in L.A. and Auerbach’s own Easy Eye studio in Nashville. Auerbach also seems to take pride in the fact that he came up with the album’s infectious lead single, “Fever,” during the early sessions in Michigan, without assistance from Danger Mouse, who has served as the band’s co-writer as well as producer on the past few albums.

“Fever” exemplifies Auerbach’s formidable strength as a tunesmith—he can write catchy pop hooks that go straight to your head like a sugar rush. The song’s main synth line wouldn’t be out of place in an early Eighties hit by OMD or Depeche Mode. “Fever” is also one of many seriously bass-driven songs on Turn Blue. Throughout the album sessions, Auerbach played a Fender Mustang bass guitar through “a good, old-time transformer D.I.,” he notes, usually employing a pick. “I really like palm-muted pick bass,” he says. “Especially if you’ve got flatwound strings. It’s just classic—a really nice bass sound that kind of sits well in a mix and is really propulsive.”

This is an excerpt from the September 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the rest of this story, plus features on Dan Auerbach's off-beat guitars, Eric Clapton and his new J.J. Cale tribute album, Judas Priest, 17 Amazing practice amps, columns, tabs and reviews of new gear from Epiphone, ESP Guitars, Visual Sound, Blackstar, G&L Guitars, Ibanez and more, check out the September 2014 issue at the Guitar World Online Store.

The Black Keys have extended their upcoming worldwide tour in support of their new album, Turn Blue.

The Ohio-based blues-rock duo will be supported on the nearly year-long jaunt, at different times, by St. Vincent, Cage the Elephant and Jake Bugg.

Check out the band's upcoming dates below.

• 06-20 Neuhausen Ob Eck, Germany - Southside Festival
• 06-22 Scheessel, Germany - Hurricane Festival
• 06-24 Zagreb, Croatia - Inmusic Festival
• 06-27 St. Gallen, Switzerland - Open Air St. Gallen
• 06-28 Beuningen, Holland - Down the Rabbit Hole
• 07-02 Gdansk, Poland - Open'er Festival
• 07-04 Pas-de-Calais, France - Main Square Festival
• 07-05 Werchter, Belgium - Festivalpark Werchter
• 07-06 Belfort, France - Les Eurockeennes
• 07-08 Rome, Italy - Rock in Rome
• 07-11 Lisbon, Portugal - Optimus Alive
• 07-12 Bilbao, Spain - Bilbao BBK Live
• 07-15 Nimes, France - Festival de Nimes
• 07-17 Vieilles Charrues, France - Les Vieilles Charrues
• 07-20 Suffolk, England - Latitude Festival
• 09-05 Columbus, OH - Schottenstein Center *
• 09-06 Cleveland, OH - Quicken Loans Arena *
• 09-07 Grand Rapids, MI - Van Andel Arena *
• 09-09 Milwaukee, WI - BMO Harris Bradley Center *
• 09-10 Louisville, KY - KFC Yum! Center *
• 09-12 Detroit, MI - Joe Louis Arena *
• 09-13 Pittsburgh, PA - CONSOL Energy Center *
• 09-14 Rochester, NY - Blue Cross Arena *
• 09-16 Toronto, Ontario - Air Canada Centre *
• 09-17 Ottawa, Ontario - Canadian Tire Centre *
• 09-18 Montreal, Quebec - Bell Centre *
• 09-20 Philadelphia, PA - Wells Fargo Center *
• 09-21 Boston, MA - TD Garden *
• 09-23 Brooklyn, NY - Barclays Center *
• 09-24 Brooklyn, NY - Barclays Center *
• 09-25 Washington, DC - Verizon Center *
• 09-27 Chicago, IL - United Center *
• 09-28 Chicago, IL - United Center *
• 10-24 Minneapolis, MN - Target Center #
• 10-25 Winnipeg, Manitoba - MTS Centre #
• 10-27 Calgary, Alberta - Scotiabank Saddledome #
• 10-28 Edmonton, Alberta - Rexall Place #
• 10-30 Vancouver, British Columbia - Pacific Coliseum #
• 10-31 Portland, OR - Moda Center #
• 11-01 Seattle, WA - KeyArena #
• 11-03 Oakland, CA - Oracle Arena #
• 11-04 Sacramento, CA - Sleep Train Arena #
• 11-06 Los Angeles, CA - The Forum #
• 11-09 San Diego, CA - Viejas Arena at Aztec Bowl #
• 11-10 Phoenix, AZ - US Airways Center #
• 11-12 Salt Lake City, UT - Maverik Center #
• 11-13 Denver, CO - Pepsi Center #
• 11-15 Houston, TX - Toyota Center #
• 11-16 Dallas, TX - American Airlines Center #
• 12-04 Baltimore, MD - Baltimore Arena ^
• 12-05 Raleigh, NC - PNC Arena ^
• 12-06 Richmond, VA - Richmond Coliseum ^
• 12-08 Nashville, TN - Bridgestone Arena ^
• 12-09 St. Louis, MO - Scottrade Center ^
• 12-11 Atlanta, GA - Philips Arena ^
• 12-12 Charlotte, NC - Time Warner Cable Arena ^
• 12-13 Greenville, SC - Bon Secours Wellness Arena ^
• 12-15 Fort Lauderdale, FL - BB&T Center ^
• 12-16 Tampa, FL - Tampa Bay Times Forum ^
• 12-17 Orlando, FL - Amway Center ^
• 12-19 Austin, TX - Frank Erwin Center ^
• 12-20 Tulsa, OK - BOK Center ^
• 12-21 Kansas City, MO - Sprint Center ^

* with Cage the Elephant
# with Jake Bugg
^ with. St. Vincent

The Black Keys have premiered another portion of their upcoming album, Turn Blue, sharing a moody new track — "Bullet in the Brain" — via BBC Radio 1.

You can hear it via the YouTube player below.

If fact, you can hear the duo's entire Zane Lowe BBC session HERE. Let us know what you think of the song, and, for that matter, the other two songs that are available for your listening pleasure. There's "Fever" and "Turn Blue."

Turn Blue will be released May 13, following the band's May 10 performance on Saturday Night Live.

The Black Keys have premiered the music video for "Fever," the first single from their upcoming album, Turn Blue. You can watch it below.

The album will be released May 13 by Nonesuch Records — and the band will celebrate the occasion with a May 10 appearance on NBC's Saturday Night Live.

The Black Keys will headline the Hangout Festival in Alabama May 16 before embarking on a European festival tour this summer; more U.S. dates will be announced soon. You can see their current dates below the video.

Turn Blue was recorded at Sunset Sound in L.A. in 2013 with additional recording done at the Key Club in Benton Harbor, Michigan, and Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound in Nashville in 2014. Produced by Danger Mouse, Auerbach and Patrick Carney, Turn Blue features 11 new tunes.

This is the duo's eighth full-length album and the followup to 2011’s El Camino, which made its way onto a few year-end best-of lists here in GW Land. Will the new album do as well? Only time will tell.

THE BLACK KEYS TOUR

• May 16-18 Gulf Shores, AL Hangout Music Fest
• June 20 Neuhausen Ob Eck, Germany Southside Festival
• June 22 Scheessel, Germany Hurricane Festival
• June 24 Zagreb, Croatia Inmusic Festival
• June 25 Pilton, U.K. Glastonbury
• June 27 St. Gallen, Switzerland Open Air St. Gallen (sold out)
• June 28 Beuningen, Holland Down The Rabbit Hole
• July 2 Gdansk, Poland Open’er Festival
• July 4 Pas-de-Calais, France Main Square Festival
• July 5 Werchter, Belgium Festivalpark Werchter
• July 6 Belfort, France Les Eurockennes
• July 8 Rome, Italy Rock In Rome
• July 11 Lisboa, Portugal Optimus Alive
• July 12 Bilbao, Spain Bilbao – BBK Live
• July 15 Nîmes, France Festival de Nîmes
• July 17 Les Vieilles Charrues, France Les Vieilles Charrues
• July 20 Suffolk, U.K. Latitude Festival
• July 22 Nyon, Switzerland Paleo Festival

Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney debuted the band's new single, “Turn Blue,” this morning on his SiriusXM show, “Serious Boredom.”

You can check it out below.

“Turn Blue” is the title track from the band's new album, their eighth, which will be released May 13. It was co-produced by Danger Mouse with Carney and Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach.

You can buy the single — or get it as a free instant download with album pre-orders — at theblackkeys.com/turnblue.

Last week, ear-biting (and boxing) legend Mike Tyson announced the new Black Keys album, Turn Blue, via his Twitter feed.

The Tyson Tweet led readers to the strange video below, which — eventually — provides a few details about the band's upcoming album. It also lets us know the Black Keys are "rock musicians."

The album, the band's eighth, will be released May 13. It will be the follow-up to 2011's Grammy-winning El Camino. It is rumored that the album's first single — "Fever" — will hit radio today, March 24. Stay tuned for more details on that.

The Black Keys will headline the Hangout Festival in Gulf Shores, Alabama, which runs May 16 to 18.

Today, GuitarWorld.com presents the exclusive premiere of a new video by the Sheepdogs. It features an acoustic version of “I Don’t Get By,” a track from their 2010 album, Learn and Burn. The video was filmed at Atlantic Records — in the old offices of Ahmet Ertegun, the late founder and president of the label. The Sheepdogs, who hail from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, released their self-titled Atlantic debut album last year — a disc that was produced by Austin Scaggs and the Black Keys’ Patrick Carney. The album earned the band JUNO nominations for Best Album, Best Single and Best Group and was certified gold in Canada in 2013. The Sheepdogs won an international competition in 2011 securing them the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. The win, decided by 1.5 million votes, also scored them a record deal with Atlantic, which issued an EP by the band, Five Easy Pieces, in 2011. After the band was introduced to Carney, he immediately began offering ideas for their next album. “He seemed strangely passionate about it,” the Sheepdogs' Ewan Currie says. “I think Patrick has a good sense of no bullshit,” Currie says. “A lot of making rock and roll is about cutting the fat and being a good filter. In the studio, he helped us refine the songs and found the best representation of each one possible. Plus, we wanted to be able to incorporate all different styles and I think our albums run the gamut.” The Sheepdogs are touring Canada now and will stop off in Seattle for Bumbershoot on September 2 before heading to Europe. For more about the band, visit their official website and Facebook page.

The Black Keys — those two blues- and garage-loving Ohioans best known for recording raw, stripped-down, "mid-fi" albums — picked up four Grammy awards last night.

The duo, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, earned Best Rock Album for El Camino (released in December 2011), plus Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance for "Lonely Boy." Auerbach scored a bonus Grammy as Non-Classical Producer for the Black Keys' El Camino, plus his work on Dr. John's Locked Down album and two discs by Hacienda.

Album of the Year went to Mumford & Sons for Babel. Record of the Year went to Gotye (featuring Kimbra) for "Somebody That I Used To Know," while Song of the Year went to Fun. for "We Are Young."

In the world of hard rock and metal, Halestorm beat out heavyweights Anthrax, Lamb of God, Marilyn Manson, Iron Maiden and Megadeth to win Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance for "Love Bites (So Do I)."

It was a disappointing night for Jack White, who was nominated for Album of the Year, Rock Album of the Year (both for Blunderbuss) and Best Rock Song ("Freedom at 21") but lost in every category. His Third Man Records label mates, Alabama Shakes, also lost in three categories, including Best New Artist and Best Rock Performance.

Performance-wise, White performed with both his all-female and all-male bands. Black Keys tore through "Lonely Boy" with Dr. John; a tribute to the late Levon Helm of the Band featured Zac Brown, Elton John, Mavis Staples and Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes, who performed "The Weight." Bruno Mars kicked off a Bob Marley tribute with his own song, "Locked Out of Heaven," before introducing Sting, who led the band into "Walking on the Moon." Rihanna, Ziggy Marley and Damian Marley finally joined them for Bob Marley's "Could You Be Loved."

For the show's finale, Tom Morello, LL Cool J and Chuck D performed "Whaddup."

Other guitar-centric or noteworthy Grammy wins:

• Best Jazz Instrumental Album: Unity Band, Pat Metheny
• Best Americana Album: Slipstream, Bonnie Raitt
• Best Blues Album: Locked Down, Dr. John (produced by Dan Auerbach)
• Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album: Kisses On The Bottom, Paul McCartney (featuring Eric Clapton)
• Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross
• Best Bluegrass Album: Nobody Knows You, Steep Canyon Rangers
• Best Reggae Album: Rebirth, Jimmy Cliff (featuring a cover of the Clash's "Guns of Brixton")
• Best World Music Album: The Living Room Sessions Part 1, Ravi Shankar
• Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media: Midnight In Paris (featuring the stellar guitar work of Stephane Wrembel)
• Best Historical Album: The Smile Sessions (Deluxe Box Set), The Beach Boys
• Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical: Dan Auerbach (of the Black Keys)

For a complete list of winners and losers, visit the official Grammy awards website at grammy.com.

Photo: grammy.com/photos

Mississippi Fred McDowell’s haunted, woody voice sails through the air as the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach nurses a cup of coffee and flips through a vintage lunchbox-sized valise designed for carrying 45 rpm records.

“Lord, when you get home baby,” the late bluesman cries as his slide guitar cuts a zigzagging melody, “won’t you write me a few of your lines.”

“Found it!” Auerbach exults as McDowell keeps spinning on the well-used turntable at his Nashville home base, Easy Eye Studio. He pulls an orange-labeled single out of the case and shows it to Billy Gibbons, who’s sitting next to Auerbach on the worn office sofa, sipping a Diet Coke.

“The first ZZ Top record, on Scat. I want to have you sign it,” he says.

“Sure,” Gibbons says, examining the flashback from his—and the music industry’s—past.

“Cool,” Auerbach replies. “Which was the A-side: ‘Miller’s Farm’ or ‘Salt Lick’?”

“It was ‘Salt Lick,’ ” Gibbons says in his laconic twang.

It’s a classic moment: Gibbons, the godfather of Texas-style blues rock putting his signature on a treasured disc belonging to Auerbach, a ZZ Top devotee and today’s most prominent practitioner of blues-influenced garage rock. Separately, the men represent two badass pinnacles of rock and roll, demonstrating through their music, guitar work and choice of instruments how the blues has influenced—and continues to shape—music, well into the 21st century. Together, Gibbons and Auerbach are a blues summit—a pair of experts who can riff on the contributions of blues legends like Hound Dog Taylor, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Junior Kimbrough, while discussing the finer points of the vintage gear that helped shape the sound of classic blues records.

Although the occasion for Gibbons and Auerbach’s meeting is an interview for Guitar World, it might as well be a record collectors’ convention, a guitar swap or a blues-fan nerd-out. The conversation embraces the gleaming faux-silver-pickguard-bedazzled Silvertone charmer that Gibbons has brought along with three other guitars, plus a pair of vintage Kustom speaker towers that he and bassist Dusty Hill are using on ZZ Top’s current tour for Texicali, their new back-to-basics four-track EP. Gibbons and Auerbach also extol the charms of vintage vinyl and the sounds and rambunctious spirits of a host of bygone blues six-stringers, including McDowell, Lil’ Son Jackson, Junior Kimbrough, Hound Dog Taylor and, of course, Lightnin’ Hopkins, whose music cuts close to both men’s bones (see sidebar).

Gibbons and Auerbach have been friends for nearly a decade, and when they get together it’s like an exuberant reunion of long-parted pals. Despite the difference in their ages, the two have many similarities that belie the distance between their generations.

Gibbons got his start in the mid Sixties playing gnashing guitar in the Moving Sidewalks, a group that breathed the same dusty psychedelic Texas air as the legendary Roky Erickson and opened for Jimi Hendrix and the Doors. He educated himself in the ice-pick guitar styles of protean Texas bluesmen like Hopkins and Jackson and their Louisiana neighbor Frankie Lee Sims, plus the laconic hypnosis of Jimmy Reed and Eddie Taylor. Since then, Gibbons and ZZ Top have recorded 15 studio albums and 42 singles onto which he has cut one of the greatest guitar tones ever to bark out of an amp.

Auerbach, who has pasted some of the past decade’s most evil and snarling guitar sounds onto seven studio albums by the Black Keys, started clean—playing bluegrass with his family—but set out on a personal quest to explore the same dirty secrets of the blues as Gibbons, albeit 30 years later. For him, discovering the serpentine melody lines of Mississippi hill-country guitar anti-hero Junior Kimbrough was like being struck by the other kind of lightning. It jolted him out of college and into cofounding the Black Keys in Akron, Ohio, in 2001. With three Grammy Awards, a Platinum album for 2010’s sonically daring Brothers, a solo disc, March’s sold-out Madison Square Garden concert, an April headlining gig at California’s eclectic Coachella festival and a near-ubiquitous presence on TV and in film soundtracks, Auerbach and the Black Keys are burning their names into rock’s Big Black Book.

Over the course of nearly four hours Gibbons and Auerbach will laugh, talk, pick out licks and share the camera’s focus with Auerbach’s big brown dog, Bella, a natural charmer who saunters through the studio greeting visitors like Easy Eye’s unofficial hostess. They’ll also take four minutes to listen to a cut Auerbach’s been producing for Los Angeles–based songwriter-guitarist Hanni El Khatib that’s gritty, haunting and reverb-drenched enough to be a lost gem from the vault of Chicago’s Chess Records. Which prompts our opening question:

Have you guys ever recorded together?

• BILLY GIBBONS: Oddly enough, we were brought into the studio under the auspices of our buddy [producer] Rick Rubin. We had developed a friendship aimed at just taking the time to talk about the kind of stuff we’re talking about now: Lightnin’ Hopkins and Lil’ Son Jackson, Gold Star Records out of Houston... So much of that stuff was primitive by today’s standards but did a fine job then.
• Anyway, Dan and Patrick [Carney, the Black Keys’ drummer] and me got together in California in the studio and spent a couple days knocking around, and it brought us even closer together. The funny thing was, we were having such a blast, and the richness of the exchange had Rick Rubin speechless. He just kept saying, “Keep on, keep on…”

DAN AUERBACH: Rick had us doing this weird thing where he would throw out an idea and we’d start jamming. Patrick and I would leave going, “What just happened?”

GIBBONS: Rick has got this unwarranted reputation for taking forever to get a project done. He’s quite the opposite. I think in the course of one day we had starter-kit ideas for about 20 songs. Rick would come out of the control room and go, “Well, we’ve got that. Let’s do something else.” He’d look around and say, “Patrick, give me a beat!” It was, like, hyper-pedal…

How did you guys meet?

AUERBACH: Billy came to one of our shows in New York City, at Irving Plaza.

GIBBONS: Yes, that was early on, but previous to that was the Paramount in Santa Fe, New Mexico. What drew me there… I was living out there for a time, and my buddy Freddie Lopez, who is an actor but also has a mind for sounds, said, “What are you doing tonight?” I said, “Not much. What do you have in mind?” He said, “There’s this group called the Black Keys.” “The Black Keys?” I said. “Man, I can’t believe you’re bringing this up. Just last week, I was in Los Angeles and the filmmaker David Lynch,” who is partnered up with his musical buddy, um…

Angelo Badalamenti?

GIBBONS: Yes! Well, they had come to the house, and Lynch said, “I just wanted to bring you this,” and it was the first Black Keys record.

AUERBACH: We were touring at that point in the minivan. I remember listening to Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes as we were rolling over the hills at night, seeing the lights of Santa Fe in the distance.

GIBBONS: Upon hearing the Black Keys for the first time, it resonated. We stuck around after the show that night and I made it a point to get to know Dan and Patrick. I said, “I don’t know how you guys do this, but don’t change it. It is working.” The room was rocking; the walls were rattling. We got to talking about so many like-minded things. It came as no surprise that much of the inspirations that lead me to continue to do what I do are the same things that lead Dan to do what he does. So we connected. The brush fire had started.

AUERBACH: Now it’s a bro-mance that’s taken years to blossom.

GIBBONS: What I enjoy about watching the Black Keys is the sense of abandon. It’s wonderful to be embraced and appreciated by many, many fans that get it and want to be part of it. At the same time, Dan and Patrick are being propelled to deliver something.

There is something remarkably mesmerizing about getting to do what we get to do. It’s beyond design. We’re just drawn to it. And there are those moments when, I don’t know how to describe it, but you’re just enjoyably drawn to get it out. It’s beyond yourself.

Billy, you’ve been eyeing the wall of about 600 albums in the studio’s office, and Dan, you’ve kept discs spinning since Billy arrived…

GIBBONS: If we can address the value of vinyl… Upon entering Dan’s Easy Eye Studio, I was drawn immediately to the Macintosh tube amp and the turntable, and it was in the groove. The rawness and the richness of music on vinyl almost went away, but it still seems to be on a lot of people’s radar, and for good reason. It does something different than more accessible means of music playing, like MP3 players and downloads and whatnot. You get in front of these archaic contraptions that go ’round and ’round. It’s mesmerizing, not only to look at but to sit back and experience. Wouldn’t you agree?

AUERBACH: Yeah, yeah. There’s nostalgia there, for sure, but it also sounds fucking great. Everything sounds really good on vinyl, if you’ve got a nice setup. I’ve got a bunch more albums at home.

Billy, do you have a big vinyl collection?

GIBBONS: Oh yeah. Unfortunately, it had to be rescued. We were in England and I was notified to call my assistant, Denise. She said, “Well, there’s been a horrific rain storm and that flat roof of your condo sprung a leak. I was retrieving the mail and I saw something that looked like a garden hose spraying straight into the room.” She called the handyman and they were able to put the valuables aside, but part of the rain went right into a column of vinyl.

Water doesn’t hurt a vinyl record. Put it into a dishwasher and you’re fine. But the paper began to mold and my secretary, being rather protective, decided it was unsafe and threw them all away. I was able to rescue several garbage bags. It was just one column, but it happened to be a column of favorites. I ordered up a bunch of plain white sleeves to put them in and they were fine.

What are some of your favorite titles on vinyl?

AUERBACH: It changes every day. I always obsess about something and listen to it over and over and over again.

GIBBONS: I’ll turn one track into a two-hour listening session. It’s that obsessive thing. I share it with Dan—the passion and obsessiveness that can enter one’s pathology when it comes to vinyl and tubes and all this crusty stuff.
I have a longstanding buddy who is a true audiophile and has invested a lot of time and money, to the point where he bought a platform that was invented to stabilize electron microscopes from the rattling as the Earth spins…

AUERBACH: The rattling of the Earth’s rotation? [laughs]

GIBBONS: It was causing this low-end rumble that he was able to perceive. Given the power of an electron microscope—and at 100,000 times magnification, it better darn well be stable or it’s going to be very fuzzy—he decided that if he put one under his turntable it would be a little more precise.

AUERBACH: Shit. Just have one of those built into the soles of your shoes. Check this out… [He pulls another single out of a case.] Here’s Hound Dog Taylor’s very first 45, before he had his band the Houserockers: “Christine” backed with “Alley Music,” on the Firma label.

Did you know that Hound Dog Taylor left Mississippi with the Ku Klux Klan on his trail? They wanted to lynch him for seeing a white woman, so he took off at night and hid by crawling through drainage ditches until he got to Memphis, where he lit out for Chicago.

GIBBONS: Well, that brings up something really interesting. How did Memphis become this musical melting pot? As the African-American exodus to leave Mississippi started building up steam to head up to Chicago—where it was a little more open and job opportunities were better—very few people had enough money to have an automobile or even to get a bus ticket, so walking out of Mississippi was the way to get on your way. From the Delta, Memphis was about as far as you could make it on one set of soles. That was a great stopping spot, with Beale Street and the nightlife. The attraction must have been beyond imagination.

AUERBACH: Think about how exciting it was before the days of being able to check shit out on the internet. All you would hear were stories, and as they were told and retold they’d get grander and grander. Can you imagine how the stories about what it was like hanging out in Memphis sounded in rural Mississippi?

GIBBONS: I heard a story: Freddie King and Little Walter walked…you know the [Howlin’ Wolf] song “I Walked from Dallas.” I think Freddie did a version. Word has it that Freddie King and Little Walter walked from Texas to Chicago. Maybe not all the way, but significantly…

One of the things you both appreciate in classic blues artists like Little Walter and Lightnin’ Hopkins is their expressionism—the idea of changing and moving on to new ideas when you feel it in the music, not because it’s dictated by form.

GIBBONS: It’s become acceptable to address that which is emanating from a spiritual and soulful spot within—something that doesn’t necessarily have a requirement to be perfectly boxed in forms of 12 bars or 16 bars—like a math problem.

AUERBACH: When did that happen? Did British blues do that?

GIBBONS: Well, yeah.

AUERBACH: Did you like British blues? You know, like the John Mayalls and the Peter Greens?

GIBBONS: Yeah. The British have a tendency to take whatever subject they plow into down to the genetics, and blues was no exception. But they were getting blues records much, much later, when the art form itself here in the United States ran the risk of being abandoned. Then the Rolling Stones, the Pretty Things, a lot of these groups—especially John Mayall, who was the leading exponent of hardcore electric blues experimentation—made it so appealing and repopularized the art form. I call it the Great Salvation. They are to be credited for the salvation of this art form that was nearly extinct.

AUERBACH: I could never get into British blues. I don’t know why. I grew up listening to Memphis recordings and Texas stuff, and then I couldn’t understand the British approach. I just didn’t get it.

But didn’t you come up playing bluegrass, which requires so much precision?

AUERBACH: Bluegrass was more about the harmonies for me, and vocal group stuff, like the Stanley Brothers. It’s about songs. And bluegrass is soul music—white soul music.

GIBBONS: Ah… the Stanley Brothers. That harmony work was so perfect. When you analyze the complexity of where the melody would go, and to have three guys intuitively able to follow, it’s just…beautiful.

You guys not only have musical tastes in common, you have a shared interest in a certain kind of guitar tone. You’re always looking for dirt. Where does that come from?

AUERBACH: It was listening to these records and I’d think, How did Elmore James get his guitar to sound like that? You couldn’t go to Guitar Center and plug into an amp and get that sound. I had to dig for it. It’s hard to say, but still to this day, I listen to some of those old 45s and just can’t believe the sounds they got. And they were using weird shit. Little Walter was using that weird Danelectro amp with six eight-inch speakers. Electric music wasn’t defined yet. Companies were making weird stuff, and those guys were taking advantage of it.

GIBBONS: It’s no secret that, even then, Fender and Gibson kind of led the pack as far as high-quality instruments, and after them you’ve got what maybe even then would be considered lesser instruments, only because they were more affordable. And those are the instruments that were largely present on vintage blues records, making these sounds that are so appealing. I mean, they’re magnetic.

In 1950, the biggest amp you could get was no bigger than a tabletop radio. Imagine trying to be heard in a joint with people screamin’ and shufflin’ their feet and bottles breakin’. You had to take that amp and turn it up all the way. When you’d get up past that “acceptable” point, you’d get into the land of distortion, which is where it really gets groovy. And I don’t think it was intentional. I think they just wanted to be heard.

Getting back to the idea of performances coming from a soulful place within: do you think that happens much in contemporary music?

GIBBONS: You don’t see it as often because the more popular outlets, like TV, are designed to be predictable. That’s to say, it’s easier to see a soulless…no, it’s easier to see something that may lack what you are describing, but I feel there are probably more soulful performers under the radar.

AUERBACH: With record labels getting smaller, record sales going way down, local record shops closing up, it’s harder for people to find the stuff that’s under the radar but still as easy for people to find all the big pop stuff. That stuff’s not for transcendence; it’s kid stuff. It’s for people who buy one or two CDs a year. Music is not their thing.

The internet makes finding interesting music and soulful music easier, but you have to search for it. I have a buddy who used to own a magazine in California who’s the first guy who told me about YouTube. He said, “You’ve got to check this out. It’s gonna be really big.” He sent me a link to a video by Parliament-Funkadelic playing at a Boston television station in 1969, and they were going bananas. It was insane. I’d never seen that footage before, and it was the coolest shit ever. YouTube is amazing for a guy who used to have to go to the public library and have them search for shit for me, and half the time they’d never find it.

GIBBONS: Because of the overwhelming amount of stuff that’s out there on YouTube, the real challenge is just sifting through to something where you’re bonused by the discovery. How about [blues and gospel legend] Sister Rosetta Tharp?

AUERBACH: She was a monster…on a white SG with triple pickups. [Gibbons picks up his phone and plays a video of Tharp’s performance of “Up Above My Head,” which includes a burning solo on that SG. Auerbach responds with a clip of black South African guitarist Hannes Coetzee playing acoustic slide guitar—and beautifully—with a spoon held in his teeth. Gibbons laughs.]

GIBBONS: There’s an example of “You can’t do that.” “But I am!” [laughs] Bonused!

Do each of you have a favorite guitar right now?

AUBERBACH: I’ve been playing my white Kent a bunch. We’ve been doing an album in here over the past week and we’ve used that on every song. I bought it in a guitar shop in San Jose. I’ve had it about a year and a half.

GIBBONS: The tremolo arm on that is the sweetest primitive setup. This ain’t rocket science. It’s just a bending piece of metal. Dan told me, “I bought a ’53 Gibson Gold Top and this Kent…”

AUERBACH: At the same shop.

GIBBONS: On the same day. And he said, “I don’t know if I’ve played that Gold Top yet.” There’s a great guitar player here in Nashville, Mike Henderson…

AUERBACH: Oh, I love him. [sings a line from Henderson’s “When I Get Drunk”] “When I get drunk, who’s gonna carry me home…”

GIBBONS: Well, he’s had one guitar and one amp that he’s played as long as I’ve known him, which is a significant amount of time.

There are two premises to aspire to. Number one: learn to play what you want to hear. And two: know what you want to hear and then go after it. If that’s the platform you’re playing from, it doesn’t matter what you’re playing.

In this business, I know it’s popular to have the most valuable or most esoteric guitars. And there’s a lot of stuff out there. Just about the time you think you’ve seen it all, go to one of these guitar gatherings and somebody pops up with the mystery amp or guitar. But it comes back to familiarity. I mean, who would think that if you take a Kent—an early low-tier budget guitar—and start banging on it, oh yeah, you got the goods?

The harmonica player Shaky Walter Horton [a.k.a. Big Walter] took a job as a cab dispatcher up in Chicago—not because he needed that gig or wanted to become a cab dispatcher; he wanted the microphone. After about two weeks, they said, “Okay, this guy’s good.” Then he got wire cutters, cut the mic and split. And that was it.

AUBERBACH: The thing I’ve learned about guitars and amps is that it’s fun to collect them. I love that stuff. But it doesn’t matter one bit what instrument you play. Lightnin’ Hopkins could pick up anything and still sound like Lightnin’ Hopkins. Usually when you fall in love with a guitar it’s because it’s lightweight, it sits nice when you put it on, the headstock doesn’t weigh it down. Sometimes it’s even more about comfort and whether it feels like it could be an extension of your body than about sound.

GIBBONS: In closing, Dan and I could warrant this: get one of each guitar you love, and then turn them up loud.

The Black Keys, the power-packed Akron duo who released Brothers in 2010 and followed it soon after with 2011's El Camino, have already started sessions for their next album.

"We spent a week in the studio," guitarist Dan Auerbach told Rolling Stone, referring to a Nashville session that took place in July. He added that it wasn't "the most focused studio session," but he and drummer Patrick Carney did "get some ideas down and started the ball rolling."

The duo plan to regroup in earnest in early 2013 more more sessions. "We might not finish it until March since we have to tour so much, but we'll see," Carney told Rolling Stone earlier this summer.

"We never know what's going to happen," Auerbach added. "We don't talk about it. We don't plan it. We start recording, and then all of a sudden it starts to take shape and we have an idea." Auerbach adds that each Black Keys album, to him, represents "a snapshot of a moment in time. We like to let them be like that," he says. "Sort of a spontaneous thing."

Auerbach added that a producer hasn't been chosen yet — and they might even produce the next album themselves.

Auerbach and ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons shared the cover of the October 2012 issue of Guitar World,which is available now at the Guitar World Online Store. Check out an excerpt from that issue right here.

The all-new October 2012 issue of Guitar World magazine is available now at the Guitar World Online Store.

This month, ZZ Top's blues-rock godfather, Billy Gibbons, and the Black Keys' garage-rock scion, Dan Auerbach, sit down for a talk about the long history of the blues and its enduring power in the 21st century. They also discuss their love of talking-blues legend Lightnin' Hopkins (Check out this month's In Deep video: John Lee Hooker and Lightnin' Hopkins, below).

And speaking of the blues, read about the wild blues life of Buddy Guy in an excerpt from his new autobiography, When I Left Home, in which he tells how his reputation as a guitar slinger spread like wildfire through the Windy City.

Also, guitarist Mark Tremonti of Creed and Alter Bridge follows his thrash-metal muse and comes into his own with All I Was, the debut album from his self-titled solo project.

Poison frontman Brett Michaels teams up with Ace Frehley, Phil Collen, Michael Anthony and other musical mates for Get Your Rock On, his latest album, featuring new recordings of songs by Poison, Lynyrd Skynyrd and others.

Plus, plenty of GEAR!

• Rocktron Boutique Series stomp boxes
• Orange Signature #4 Jim Root Terror amp
• Framus Panthera Studio Supreme
• EQ What's Hot and Cool
• Samick JTR Marie MR10 electric guitar
• Eminence EJ1250 Eric Johnson Signature 12-inch speakers
• Cort MR710-F acoustic-electric
• Olympus LS-100 Linear PCM Recorder

And four SONGS with Guitar and Bass TABS!

•Maroon 5, "Moves Like Jagger"
•ZZ Top, "Waitin' for the Bus"
•Buddy Guy, "Damn Right, I've Got the Blues"
•Pierce the Veil, "Caraphernelia"

The new issue is available now at the Guitar World Online Store.

The Black Keys have just premiered the fourth music video from their latest studio album, El Camino. Check out the video for "Little Black Submarines" below.

A departure from the more videos the band has produced as of late, the "Little Black Submarines" clip features mainly live performance footage from an intimate gig at Nashville dive Springwater Supper Club.

And just a reminder that the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach is featured on the cover of the latest issue of Guitar World alongside the legendary Billy Gibbons. You can read an excerpt from the cover story here, and pick it up in our online store here.

“Where are my keys?” I cried in much more colorful terms as I got out of a cab in front of downtown Chicago’s Congress Plaza Hotel, hands digging through my pockets.

Before closing the door and possibly sending my only car key (I dropped my other copy in the snow last winter) and several others off into the great unknown, I quickly scoured the backseat. No dice.

Were they on the plane? If so, they’re probably in Zambia by now. Perhaps they fell out when my girlfriend and I sat down to eat after landing? A few days later, the airport police department’s giant tin of misplaced keys suggested otherwise. Wherever they were, I had arrived at Lollapalooza, which rocked the Windy City August 3 to 5.

Seeing eight or nine bands per day with more than 100,000 other music fanatics means I shouldn’t have to worry about such trivial matters like how I’m going to get back into my own car.

So I didn’t. Instead, I began obsessing over real problems, like whether to see Metric or The Afghan Whigs on Friday and if I should leave early from Sigur Ros’ show to catch all of The Gaslight Anthem’s set on Sunday. Such are the dilemmas at the Midwest’s premier rock festival, an annual three-day celebration that brings 130 acts to eight stages in Chicago's picturesque Grant Park. Ben Folds sure was right when he sang, “Y’all don’t know what it’s like being male, middle-class and white.”

Friday

On Friday afternoon, still tired from the previous night’s rousing Band of Horses pre-show at Wrigleyville’s intimate Metro venue, I opted for the relaxing tones of Swedish folk duo First Aid Kit, who serenaded early arrivers with the best cuts from their gorgeous new album, The Lion’s Roar. I almost needed a first aid kit of my own when my girlfriend heard me thinking out loud about the sister act’s, errr, charming wardrobe choices.

After exploring the lively festival grounds with the rest of my group, it was on to the north main stage for Canadian indie rockers Metric, making a triumphant return to Grant Park after their packed Lollapalooza set two years ago. I had an incredible time belting out fan favorites like “Empty” and “Help I’m Alive” along with the rest of the energetic crowd, and doubted myself for leaving midway through to catch the last few songs from reunited ‘90s heroes The Afghan Whigs, playing nearly a mile away on the festival’s south main stage.

That is, until I heard frontman Greg Dulli belting out “Gentlemen” as I descended the stairs into Grant Park’s enormous Butler Field. It was still a scorching 91 degrees at 4:45 in the afternoon, a time of day not exactly perfect for the Whigs’ dark, soul-tinged rock, but none of that mattered. Dulli had the small, yet passionate audience captivated for the band’s first Chicago date in well over a decade.

“I can’t wait until I play at night,” laughed Dulli, who also rocked Lollapalooza in 2008 as part of the Gutter Twins, after walking offstage. “Both times I’ve played, it’s been hotter than shit.”

Even though the Afghan Whigs reunion was a dream come true for those who didn’t get a chance to see the band before their 2001 dissolution, it wasn’t even the biggest hatchet buried that day. Heavy metal godfathers Black Sabbath also reunited for their first stateside show in seven years, a nostalgic 95-minute set that was hopefully not their final farewell (guitarist Tony Iommi is currently battling cancer).

While original drummer Bill Ward sat at home because he wasn’t given a “signable contract,” founding members Ozzy Osbourne, Iommi and Geezer Butler rocked the north side with classics like “War Pigs,” “Iron Man” and “Children of the Grave.” The concert was just one of three Black Sabbath gigs in 2012, making it one of the most exclusive appearances in Lollapalooza’s seven-year history as a standalone festival.

On the larger south stage, blues rock duo du jour The Black Keys made their debut as a Lollapalooza headlining act (their fifth time there), mostly playing to those who only knew Osbourne from his MTV show of a decade ago.

Even Ozzy didn’t want the curtains to close. In a move I’ll likely never see at a concert again, the singer led the crowd in a chant of “One more song!” before reappearing onstage for an encore of “Paranoid.”

Here’s to hoping they had more than one song left in them.

Saturday

Before 6 p.m. Saturday, the second day of Lollapalooza was the worst day I’ve ever had at the festival. By 3 a.m. the next morning, it was, without question, among the best 24 hours I’ve had anywhere.

The day began normally enough - we arrived to the park early to catch the annual celebrity kickball game (featuring Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul and Food Network star Guy Fieri) before heading to an electric set from Minneapolis hip-hop collective Doomtree.

That’s where my day started to unravel (quite literally, in one case). On our way to see the remainder of JEFF the Brotherhood’s early afternoon show, the stitching in my cloth wristband somehow came undone. As with my lost keys debacle, I was determined to let nothing keep me from enjoying the music, so I stuck it out until the end of the Nashville rock duo’s set before venturing around the park to see what could be done about my faulty wristband. (They’re designed to only clasp once to prevent unauthorized entry, so I was worried I would have to purchase a marked-up Sunday wristband from a scalper.)

After my well-intentioned girlfriend and I got into a lovers’ quarrel over where I should go to report my problem, my fears were alleviated by a kind security guard manning the press area. I was able to grab lunch (Connie’s cheese pizza for two meals a day, three days in a row, baby!) and catch the last half of indie rockers Delta Spirit. After my lost keys and a patched-together wristband, I was certain it would be smooth sailing from there on out.

Then, the sky darkened and the festival was evacuated. Yes, evacuated. The same festival that withstood four hours of torrential rainstorms on the final day of its 2011 edition was now clearing out all 100,000 concertgoers, musicians, crew members and volunteers, so you know it had to be some seriously inclement weather.

Like a butterfly headed for shelter hours before a hurricane, my girlfriend had gone back to our hotel to grab some ponchos 10 minutes or so before news of the festival’s suspension was flashed on giant screens throughout the park. Left to our own devices and suddenly without any sage female advice, her two cousins, my brother and I made like real men and headed for the closest burger joint. We weren’t the only ones who chose to ride out the storm at the downtown Epic Burger, as the place was packed with dozens more hungry and disappointed festivalgoers.

Watching the sky turn black as the downtown Chicago streets were flooded with rain (and a heavy influx of people), I concluded this was the apocalyptic event the Mayans predicted would hit Earth in 2012. At least my world would end if Lollapalooza was ever cancelled.

“I hadn't really seen how many people there were until the evacuation this year,” recalled thenewno2 frontman Dhani Harrison, whose band played Lollapalooza Friday evening, a week after the festival. “It's such a large festival and you have to get up high to see the full scale ... Epic.”

Word soon arrived that the festival would reopen at 6 p.m., albeit with an amended schedule. Unfortunately, the storm left no time for up-and-coming southern rockers Alabama Shakes and Australian U2 disciples The Temper Trap to play their much-anticipated sets, while it also meant that British post-punk revivalists Bloc Party would have to cut 15 minutes from their scheduled hour-long appearance.

Prior to the evacuation, my Saturday-night schedule consisted of Bloc Party and Red Hot Chili Peppers. I was certainly excited, but after all, Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke admitted onstage that his band’s 2008 Lollapalooza gig was a “dud” and Red Hot Chili Peppers no longer count legendary guitarist John Frusciante as a member.

After being faced with a rain-out just hours earlier, now it was more like Bloc Party and Red Hot Chili Peppers. I’d never been so appreciative as when festival organizers let everybody back in, and I wasn’t alone. Grant Park was in full-on celebration mode. Frusciante or not.

I headed to Bloc Party’s south side sub-stage immediately after the gates reopened, braving the giant mud pit in the middle of the crowd and thankfully not entering the sightline of the several large men throwing others into said pit. The band, gloriously returning in 2012 after a three-year hiatus, tore through a set of old favorites like “Banquet” and “Flux,” while also mixing in extraordinary new cuts “3x3” and “Kettling.”

Bloc Party was one giant dance party. Or rather, a big mud party. It was also the best show I’ve seen in seven Lollapaloozas, hands down.

My night was already complete and the Chili Peppers hadn’t even taken the stage. Their 100-minute show may have featured one too many I’m With You cuts, but I’d had one too many adult beverages to care. The rain even forced them to pull “Scar Tissue” from the setlist, but no worries - they still closed the main set with the one-two punch of “Californication” and “By the Way.” I couldn’t have been more ecstatic that Kiedis, Flea and Chad Smith were still up there, jamming out to the songs I stayed up late to hear on the radio back in middle school.

Sunday

I definitely overdid it Saturday night, jumping and moshing around to Bloc Party and dancing in the mud for Red Hot Chili Peppers. Add in the Afghan Whigs aftershow I hit that night and the fact that it took my brother and I three tries to find the correct venue, thanks to two dead cell phones, and I was shot for Sunday.

Good thing my Sunday afternoon consisted of Bombay Bicycle Club, Polica, Trampled by Turtles, The Walkmen and Sigur Ros, five great acts well-suited for standing relatively still or lounging in the shade. I needed to make it through rowdy crowds for The Gaslight Anthem and Jack White later on.

After witnessing the lion’s share of Sigur Rós’ sleepy but gorgeous set, I sprinted almost a mile to get the best spot possible for The Gaslight Anthem’s 45-minute show. The New Jersey punks, who turned heads with an early afternoon set at Lollapalooza 2009, graduated to a later time slot for 2012, packing an intimate, shaded side stage this time. The band, riding high on the release of last month’s Handwritten, woke me up with spirited, Springsteen-reared tunes like new single “45” and fan-favorite closer “The Backseat.”

Considering how much singer Brian Fallon’s wearily confessional lyrics resonated with the young punks in the crowd and the fact that he sounds like Eddie Vedder fronting an E Street Band cover group, I wouldn’t be surprised to see The Gaslight Anthem headlining an entire day of Lollapalooza in a few years’ time (given they’re not fundamentally opposed to electrical lighting for a nighttime gig).

In 2012, however, the indie hero in the spotlight was White Stripes/Raconteurs co-founder Jack White, whose headlining solo set confirmed that rock is still alive at Lollapalooza, where the dubstep stage was the most consistently-packed all weekend. Over the course of his 105-minute show, White seamlessly weaved between recent solo hits like “Love Interruption” and “Sixteen Saltines” and classics from his other bands, such as “Seven Nation Army” and “Steady, As She Goes.” The blues rocker even switched between an all-male backing band and an all-female group midway through his set, reinforcing that Jack White is anything but vanilla as a solo artist.

Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea said it best Saturday night. The band’s 50,000-strong crowd got a friendly lecture from the blue-haired, shirtless musician before he headed offstage.

“Support live music whenever you can!” Flea preached to the choir. “Little kids playing music, old men playing violins, electronic music, punk rock, jazz, African reggae music, underground weird-ass music. Support it - it’s the voice of the people. It’s the best thing we’ve got!”

If Lollapalooza 2012 proved anything for me, it’s that we don’t need much else. Just thinking of Flea’s perfectly-worded rock & roll sermon still puts a smile on my face.

Oh, and my keys? I simply had new ones made. Too bad my car permanently died two days later. That is why you don’t let real-life worries cloud a three-day weekend in the sun.

Alex Rice blogs and interviews artists for guitarworld.com.

Photos: Alex Rice

The following in an excerpt taken from the October 2012 issue of Guitar World. For the full story, as well as features on Buddy Guy, Pierce the Veil, A Beginner's Guide to Sweep Picking and more, pick up the issue on newsstands now, or in our online store.

Billy, you’ve been eyeing the wall of about 600 albums in the studio’s office, and Dan, you’ve kept discs spinning since Billy arrived…

GIBBONS: If we can address the value of vinyl… Upon entering Dan’s Easy Eye Studio, I was drawn immediately to the Macintosh tube amp and the turntable, and it was in the groove. The rawness and the richness of music on vinyl almost went away, but it still seems to be on a lot of people’s radar, and for good reason. It does something different than more accessible means of music playing, like MP3 players and downloads and whatnot. You get in front of these archaic contraptions that go ’round and ’round. It’s mesmerizing, not only to look at but to sit back and experience. Wouldn’t you agree?

AUERBACH: Yeah, yeah. There’s nostalgia there, for sure, but it also sounds fucking great. Everything sounds really good on vinyl, if you’ve got a nice setup. I’ve got a bunch more albums at home.

Billy, do you have a big vinyl collection?

GIBBONS: Oh yeah. Unfortunately, it had to be rescued. We were in England and I was notified to call my assistant, Denise. She said, “Well, there’s been a horrific rain storm and that flat roof of your condo sprung a leak. I was retrieving the mail and I saw something that looked like a garden hose spraying straight into the room.” She called the handyman and they were able to put the valuables aside, but part of the rain went right into a column of vinyl.

Water doesn’t hurt a vinyl record. Put it into a dishwasher and you’re fine. But the paper began to mold and my secretary, being rather protective, decided it was unsafe and threw them all away. I was able to rescue several garbage bags. It was just one column, but it happened to be a column of favorites. I ordered up a bunch of plain white sleeves to put them in and they were fine.

What are some of your favorite titles on vinyl?

AUERBACH: It changes every day. I always obsess about something and listen to it over and over and over again.

GIBBONS: I’ll turn one track into a two-hour listening session. It’s that obsessive thing. I share it with Dan—the passion and obsessiveness that can enter one’s pathology when it comes to vinyl and tubes and all this crusty stuff.

I have a longstanding buddy who is a true audiophile and has invested a lot of time and money, to the point where he bought a platform that was invented to stabilize electron microscopes from the rattling as the Earth spins…

AUERBACH: The rattling of the Earth’s rotation? [laughs]

GIBBONS: It was causing this low-end rumble that he was able to perceive. Given the power of an electron microscope—and at 100,000 times magnification, it better darn well be stable or it’s going to be very fuzzy—he decided that if he put one under his turntable it would be a little more precise.

AUERBACH: Shit. Just have one of those built into the soles of your shoes. Check this out… [He pulls another single out of a case.] Here’s Hound Dog Taylor’s very first 45, before he had his band the Houserockers: “Christine” backed with “Alley Music,” on the Firma label.

For the full interview, pick up the October 2012 issue of Guitar World now in our online store.

The original music video for "Gold on the Ceiling" by The Black Keys has been available on the band's YouTube channel for about three months.

But for some reason, the guys -- Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney -- just posted a second version of the video. The new one, which is directed by Harmony Korine, is a bit more wobbly and bizarre. It features Auerbach and Carney -- along with gigantic ersatz versions of themselves -- romping around in weird baby suits, toting fire extinguishers, hugging ... not that there's anything wrong with that!

Check it out below.

"Gold on the Ceiling" is from the band's 2011 album, El Camino.

Today, NPR debuted the new music video for "Revolution" from Dr. John's new album, Locked Down, which was produced by Black Keys guitarist Dan Auerbach, who also plays on the album.

The album, which was released April 3 via Nonesuch, earned the highest-charting debut of Dr. John's 50-plus-year career.

"I wanted to surround (Dr. John) with younger guys. To test him a bit," Auerbach told NPR. "I also wanted him to talk from the Mac Rebennack [Dr. John's real name] perspective, lyrically. I didn't want him to talk from the Dr. John perspective."

The video, which was directed by Reid Long, offers a behind-the-scenes look at Dr. John's recent three weekend residency at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music), where he performed with guests including Blind Boys of Alabama, Ivan Neville, Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Irma Thomas.

The residency also included a live performance of Locked Down with Auerbach, to which The New York Times responded: "Physical and spiritual, earthly and supernatural, a memento mori and a promise of transcendence - all were aspects of Dr. John’s music for the night."

Check out the video below; below that, you'll find Dr. John's current tour dates.

For more on Dr. John, check out his Facebook page.

Dr. John's 2012 Tour Dates:

• June 1 - Alexandria, VA - The Birchmere
• June 2 - Augusta, NJ - Sussex County Fairground
• June 5 - Portland, ME - The Asylum
• June 6 - Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club
• June 7 - Tarrytown, NY - Tarrytown Music Hall
• June 9 - Charlotte, NC - Uptown Amphitheatre (w/ Gov't Mule)
• June 10 - Highland Park, IL - Ravinia Pavilion (w/ Iron & Wine)
• June 12 - Myrtle Beach, SC - House of Blues (w/ Gov't Mule)
• June 13 - Raleigh, NC - Raleigh Amphitheater (w/ Gov't Mule)
• June 14 - Louisville, KY - Iroquois Amphitheater (w/ Gov't Mule)
• June 29 - Paddock Wood, UK - Hop Farm Festival
• June 30 - Samois-sur-Seine, France - Django Reinhardt Festival
• July 2 - Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso
• July 4 - Paris, France - La Cigale
• July 5 - Stasbourg, France - Strasbourg Jazz Festivl
• July 6 - Lugano, Switzerland - Lugano Estival Jazz
• July 9 - Montreux, Switzerland - Montreux Jazz Festival
• July 10 - Nice, France - Nice Jazz Festival
• July 13 - Stuttgart, Germany - Jazz Open Stuttgart
• July 15 - Cahors, France - Cahors Blues Festival
• July 18 - London, UK - Under the Bridge
• July 19 - London, UK - Under the Bridge
• July 22 - Gateshead, UK - The Sage Gateshead
• August 3 - Newport, RI - Newport Jazz Festival

Back in January, The Black Keys made tabloid-style headlines everywhere after drummer Patrick Carney singled out Nickelback in a Rolling Stone interview as the cause of the death of rock and roll.

"Rock & roll is dying because people became OK with Nickelback being the biggest band in the world," he said. “So they became OK with the idea that the biggest rock band in the world is always going to be shit – therefore you should never try to be the biggest rock band in the world. Fuck that! Rock & roll is the music I feel the most passionately about, and I don’t like to see it fucking ruined and spoon-fed down our throats in this watered-down, post-grunge crap, horrendous shit. When people start lumping us into that kind of shit, it’s like, ‘Fuck you,’ honestly."

Now, during an interview with MTV News Canada, Carney seemed almost apologetic toward Nickelback.

"I didn't mean to single them out," Carney said during the on-camera interview. "It just came out."

He added: "There's much worse bands than Nickelback. Maybe."

You can watch the full interview below.

His Nashville studio is full of sweet vintage gear, but Dan Auerbach isn't just a retro-obsessed guitar hound. The Black Keys guitarist gets his motor running for an in-depth discussion about his group's latest album, El Camino.

“I’m not too picky about guitars,” says Dan Auerbach, who’s known for manhandling a motley assortment of electric instruments with brand names like Teisco Del Ray, Harmony, Supro, Silvertone and National onstage with the Black Keys.

“I love to collect them, mostly oddballs, but I’m not married to any brand or model. Whatever guitar has the best character for the song is the one I want to use, because if you’ve got a style, you’re going to sound like yourself no matter what guitar you play.”

Thus, while it might seem out of character for Auerbach to use a 1953 Les Paul as his go-to six-string for the Black Keys’ new El Camino, the album still sounds like classic Keys. It’s driving, melodic, brash and bristling with unbridled rock and roll energy.

Actually, it’s even more “classic” than usual, weaving in a vocabulary of rock filigrees from the Fifties and Sixties -- from handclaps and vocal harmonies to swirling Leslie speakers, big melodies and even bigger hooks. The result is a garagepop masterpiece that’s likely to ratchet Auerbach and his drumming compadre Patrick Carney a few steps closer to rock’s Olympus.

However, Auerbach is picky -- and proud and protective -- about his new Easy Eye Studio in the band’s recently adopted hometown, Nashville, Tennessee. It’s where he and Carney produced El Camino with Brian Burton, the musical auteur who goes by the name Danger Mouse. Burton helmed the Black Keys’ 2008 sonic breakthrough, Attack & Release, and the single “Tighten Up” on 2010’s commercial door buster Brothers.

“We don’t know any other producer we’d like to work with,” Auerbach explains, sitting on a worn brown leatherette sofa in Easy Eye, a comfortable, big black box just outside of downtown. Immediately to his right is a towering Moog modular synthesizer topped with a photo of a dapper, pomaded Muddy Waters from his days as a Chess Records artist. And within the surrounding 20 feet are many of the keys to his sonic kingdom: a recording console from the Sixties, a rack of well-worn guitars, amps with tattered grills, a Vako Orchestron (an early sample player that played back sound recorded on optical discs), a vintage Scully eight-track tape machine ... and the list goes on.It’s gear that Auerbach has been collecting since before the Black Keys recorded their 2002 debut, The Big Come Up, in Carney’s basement back in Akron, Ohio, under the influence of dirty three-chord rock and the haunting psychedelic echoes of North Mississippi trance bluesmen Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside, artists who still remain the cornerstones of the Black Keys’ music.“Having a place that’s tailor-made for you is a real luxury,” Auerbach says. “Everything here works. These keyboards ... all you need to do is pull up a fader on the console to start recording. You see a lot of studio websites and think they’ve got cool shit. Then when you show up, half of it’s not working. If it doesn’t work in my studio, it doesn’t stay on the floor.”Despite his retro passions, Auerbach also believes in evolution. El Camino was recorded on Easy Eye’s Pro Tools rig, and there’s a pitch-shifted yelping in its first single, the riffpumped “Lonely Boy.” So that’s where our conversation begins.GUITAR WORLD: Listening to the Black Keys’ seven albums in sequence, it’s striking to see your evolution from chord cruncher to sonic explorer. Where did it all begin?I started playing bluegrass with my family, so there were the G, C and D chords. I was playing a Martin acoustic because that’s what Carter Stanley of the Stanley Brothers played. Then I got into the really raw blues of Hound Dog Taylor and started on electric guitar. My mom bought me a white Strat, but that wasn’t what I wanted, so I went to a guitar store in Cleveland and -- the guy told me it was a really good deal -- made an even swap for a blue Teisco Del Ray. I loved that guitar and used it a bunch. I got into open D tuning, like Hound Dog. Since then I’ve gotten into other people’s styles, but I’ve never tried to master them.Despite your bluegrass roots, you seem more interested in sound and texture than notes.Definitely. That’s something I got from Junior Kimbrough. Junior changed everything for me. When I heard his album All Night Long, I dropped out of college and started playing seriously. His shit is weird North Mississippi dance music. He came up with his own style, influenced by local folks. He had the bravery to try something different.Speaking of something different, the wideopen sound of Attack & Release seemed to radically expand your universe as a guitarist. Did working with Brian Burton and Marc Ribot help open you up?I was inspired by a lot of Turkish, Japanese and South American psychedelic records at the time. They turn the guitar into a canvas that you can put sounds on top of, instead of using it as a lead instrument. Now I try to incorporate that into whatever I’m doing. Patrick and I learned from Brian, but he learned from us too. We brought a lot of the same music -- like hip-hop, psychedelia and Ennio Morricone -- to the sessions for inspiration. We have fun when we work together, and we are competitive, so we’re always trying to one-up each other with cool music that we’re into and wild ideas in the studio. And Marc is one of my all-time favorites. The first thing Ribot started doing when he began recording guitar solos was scraping the strings with his car keys. He was almost frothing at the mouth sitting in his chair playing his guitar overdubs. I first heard him on his Los Cubanos Postizos album. [Ribot’s homage to Cuban composer Arsenio Rodriguez, who played the tres, a Cuban guitar.] I’ve never tried to play along to a Jimi Hendrix or Cream record. That was the first album I played along to. [He sings a Latin-sounding guitar phrase.] That shit is so amazing. Then I got one of Rodriguez’s albums and got into the tres, which sounds like Big Joe Williams’ homemade nine-string guitar. I love that weird shit.After expanding the Black Keys’ sound so much on Attack & Release and Brothers, why go back to the roots of classic American pop-rock for El Camino?Patrick and Brian and I were listening a lot to the Clash, Jonathan Richman, the Cars and the Johnny Burnette trio -- music from different decades that was all influenced by Fifties rock and roll. We got inspired by it and went into the studio with absolutely nothing. We hadn’t rehearsed; there were no demos and no lyrics except for “Little Black Submarines,” which Brian and I had written. We’d never done it like this before. We also wanted to make an album that would translate to the stage. Brothers was very difficult to play live because it had a lot of open spaces. We added a bass player and keyboard player for touring, which I love, because otherwise the songs felt compromised, which bummed me out. When we went into the studio for Brothers I’d written the lyrics, the chord changes and all the verses and choruses. We just had to work on grooves so the music fit the lyrics. This time all the music was done first. When I recorded my solo album, Keep It Hid, in 2008 I’d gotten more interested in songwriting, inspired by reading Charles Bukowski and connecting with unfancy, interesting language. But El Camino is focused on melody and groove. A lot of the lyrics are absolute throwaways, but you want to sing along because the melody is so strong. Next time I’ll try to make the lyrics as memorable as the melodies. The bottom line is that, for us, the groove has always been king. And I have to keep my eyes and ears open because Patrick fluctuates in tempo a lot. That’s how we play live, and you can hear it on the records. Pat never plays a normal drumbeat, which is why he’s so awesome.There’s a pitch shifter on “Lonely Boy,” a talk box on “Money Maker” and vibrato and wahwah effects elsewhere. How important are stomp boxes to you?My core tone just comes from my amps. For El Camino, I used a Magnatone and an Ampeg V-92 with a JBL D-130 speaker. I blew the speaker, and in three or four songs you can hear it rattle, like at the beginning of “Lonely Boy.” I use fuzz pedals, but I’ve never used a distortion or overdrive pedal -- just boost pedals. The Shin-ei Companion Fuzz and the Marshall Supa Fuzz are my favorites. Before the sessions, Dunlop sent me a box full of effects, including a talk box. I was listening to Pete Drake a bunch. He was a pedal steel player from Nashville who invented the talk box. He has this song called “Forever” that’s amazing. So Pat and I tried to set it up and it wouldn’t work. “How does this work? How do you plug this in?” Then our engineer said, “It goes like this, dumbasses,” and just plugged it in, and we started playing with it, laughing the whole time. I cut the solo in two takes, and then I put it in a box and haven’t seen it since. I like pedals, but they have to be easy. I want instant gratification.Did you use any workhorse guitars for El Camino?I got a ’53 Les Paul while I was on tour. It looks like it was attacked by a shark. I used that a bunch, plus a Danelectro and an early Harmony Stratotone. I had the Stratotone before the Black Keys, and I’ve used it on every one of our albums. When Ribot walked into the studio for Attack & Release, he brought a Tele and one of those.How has your growth as a singer -- even to the point of having a beautiful falsetto on “Stop Stop” -- brought depth to the Black Keys’ sound?My voice is like my guitar playing. I listen to records, like Curtis Mayfield’s and Marvin Gaye’s, and get inspired. I’ve always sung falsetto and sang the high harmonies playing bluegrass with my family. But I never thought to do it as a lead vocal on a Black Keys album until Brothers, and I loved it. You have to build your confidence to sing lead in a high register. Put that kind of vocal up against really fuzzy guitars and you get a really interesting contrast. There’s always got to be contrast. If the guitar is fuzzy, the bass is going to be clean; if the bass is fuzzy, the guitar is going to be clean. I like to focus on that kind of stuff. That comes from owning a studio and being able to mess around while making records. You start to understand how elements are going to work in a mix.There’s a lot of sweet gear in Easy Eye, from analog synths to vintage board modules to stacks of amps and guitars covering nearly every inch of the place. Did you have all of this in your home studio in Akron?All of this stuff was at my house. [laughs] It’s not healthy to have your workplace be your home. I am obsessive and would never leave. If I leave here, I’m gone. Is Easy Eye a commercial enterprise?Well, I have other bands that I know and like and can trust with all my stuff. Most of it’s irreplaceable if it’s broken, so I can’t just let anybody in. I have a couple engineers I work with now, so if a band I like wants to use the studio I can let them come do that. I just produced a Dr. John album. I assembled the band, and we were here 10 days. We cut everything live. It was so fucking cool. I did albums here with the Growlers and the Reigning Sound. I just finished working with Hacienda and mixed a record for a guy from Cincinnati named Brian Olive. We’ve been doing some super-cool stuff. You get to be around these people and feed off their energy. I’ve made a lot of records with different people, and every time I’ve learned something, and I bring it to the table when we make a Black Keys record.Photo: Joseph Anthony Baker

In an issue of Rolling Stone last month, the Black Keys caused quite a stir when they proclaimed rock and roll was dead.

"Rock & roll is dying because people became OK with Nickelback being the biggest band in the world," said drummer Patrick Carney. “So they became OK with the idea that the biggest rock band in the world is always going to be shit – therefore you should never try to be the biggest rock band in the world."

(Nickelback later issued a response, saying: "Thanks to the drummer in The Black Keys calling us the Biggest Band in the World in Rolling Stone. Hehe."

While it may seem like the band were speaking passionately about the death of rock, frontman Dan Auerbach couldn't care less.

"Is rock music dead? Ha. Honestly? I don't really care," he recently told The Independent . "I don't listen to just one kind of music."

He added: "As long as music doesn't die, I'll be OK. All that talk is just fads and stories, and that's not my job. I don't worry about anything other than playing music. We've always ignored the trends."

Check out the new music video for "Gold on the Ceiling" from the Black Keys' late-2011 release, El Camino, which made Guitar World's list of last year's 50 best studio albums.

It's a nice, simple clip devoid of movie stars and rocking rabbis.

The video, which premiered last night on MTV (Yes, sometimes MTV shows music videos), features only the band playing live, just like in the old days.

Get More: The Black Keys, Gold On The Ceiling, Music, More Music Videos

The February 2012 issue of Guitar World magazine is available now at the Guitar World Online Store.

Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, Roger Waters and Nick Mason tell the story behind the making of Meddle and Wish You Were Here, the two prog-rock classics that book-ended their 1973 masterpiece, The Dark Side of the Moon.

The 1971 album Meddle set the group on the path to success, while 1975’s Wish You Were Here cemented the band’s reputation for creating groundbreaking multimedia arena shows.

The new issue also includes a free poster of previously unseen Pink Floyd artwork by Storm Thorgerson, who designed many of the group’s album covers.

Other features in this issue include:

• The Black Keys: Guitarist Dan Auerbach gets his motor running for an in-depth discussion about the group’s latest album, El Camino.

• Opeth: Mikael Akerfeldt and Fredrik Akesson tell how Opeth incurred the wrath of die-hard modern metal fans with their latest album, Heritage.

• Korn: On The Path of Totality, Korn merge heavy riffs with dubstep to take their innovative sound even further off the map.

• 50 Years of Ernie Ball: When it came to guitar strings, Ernie Ball was a game changer who revolutionized the industry. As his company turns 50, it looks back at his history and looks ahead to a yearlong celebration of innovative new products.

• Soundcheck: Yamaha A1M and A3R A Series acoustic-electric guitars, Boss BC-2 Combo Drive and FB-2 Feedbacker/Booster pedals, Peavey Devin Townsend Signature PXD Vicious seven-string baritone, EMG James Hetfield Signature pickups and much more!

For more information or to order, head to the Guitar World Online Store.