On May 15th, The Black Keys release “Delta Kreme,” their 10th album, a collection of blues covers named for an ice cream stand in Tunica, Mississippi that closed 10-years ago.
The band’s singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney were inspired by early Delta bluesmen like Big Joe Williams, Junior Kimbrough, R.L. Burnside and John Lee Hooker.
The lead single, “Crawling Kingsnake,” is 6+ minutes of rousing, rocking blues, similar to Eric Clapton’s cover of J.J. Cale’s classic “Cocaine,” which reached top 30 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1980. One music excutive described the collection as a “long, leisurely cruise down the mighty Mississippi.”
“Crawling Kingsnake” sits at #12 on the Adult Alternative chart.
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