Delta Kream

The Black Keys’ tenth studio album Delta Kream celebrates the band’s roots and is a celebration of their early inspiration.

Dan Auerbach says, “We made this record to honour 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.” Patrick Carney adds, “The session was planned only days in advance and nothing was rehearsed. We recorded the entire album in about 10 hours, over two afternoons at the end of the “Let’s Rock” tour.”

The music from Mississippi, which came to life in juke joints, has long left an imprint on the band’s music, from their cover of R. L. Burnside “Busted” and Junior Kimbrough’s “Do The Romp” on their debut album, The Big Come Up, their subsequent signing to Fat Possum Records, home to many of their musical heroes, and their EP of Junior Kimbrough covers, Chulahoma.

For this album, Auerbach and Carney recorded the 11 songs at Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville, and were joined by celebrated session musicians Brown and Deaton, long-time members of the bands of, amongst others, R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, who originated much of material that inspired Delta Kream. The album derives its name from an iconic photograph by William Eggleston.