Ohio duo The Black Keys will soon drop their upcoming blues cover album entitled Delta Kream but before that, they have shared one more single. It is a cover of Robert Lee Burnside, titled “Going Down South”.
The band – composed of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney – will release their 11-track collection on May 14. This will be their first release since their 2019 album Let’s Rock, which was their ninth studio record.
“Going Down South” is an authentic blues-rock classic and it has often been played at The Black Keys’ live shows. Now the song finally got a studio recording and the band teamed up for that with some of Burnside’s old collaborators.
About this song, Auerbach said: “That was one of R.L. Burnside’s hits! We strayed a little from the original on our version with the falsetto and percussion, but we liked how it sounded in that moment. It’s become one of my favorites on the album.”
“Going Down South” comes with its official video that has been directed by Ryan Nazdam. Most of was filmed at Jimmy Duck Holmes’ Blues Front Café, this place is the oldest active juke-joint in America.
However, the video also features some notable northern Mississippi blues landmarks, such as Blues Alley in Holly Spring, Como, the Chulahoma community, the Burnside Palace, and Aikei Pro’s record shop, flash by through a car window.
This second single comes after the release of their cover of John Lee Hooker‘s 1949 hit “Crawling Kingsnake”. With these two covers and the 11-track collection that will be released, The Black Keys not only pays homage to the Mississippi Hill Country blues tradition that influenced them at their beginning, but also they want to take this occasion to introduce a younger generation to blues icons.
Auerbach shared about their forthcoming album: “We made this record to honor the Mississippi hill country blues tradition that influenced us starting out. These songs are still as important to us today as they were the first day Pat and I started playing together and picked up our instruments. It was a very inspiring session with Pat and me along with Kenny Brown and Eric Deaton in a circle, playing these songs. It felt so natural“.
Carney also added: “The session was planned only days in advance and nothing was rehearsed. We recorded the entire album in about ten hours, over two afternoons, at the end of the ‘Let’s Rock’ tour.”
Watch the video of The Black Keys’ blues cover “Going Down South” here:
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