Brothers Gonna Work It Out
IT’S a six-minute straight shot down 8th Avenue from Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound studio to Berry Hill, Tennessee, a cosy little neighbourhood smack in the middle of Nashville. Less than a mile square, with its own postcode and cemetery – George Jones, Porter Wagoner and Tammy Wynette are among the residents – Berry Hill is a mix of yoga studios, junk shops, doll’s-house furniture makers, tax advisers and craft stores, all housed in folksy ’40s-era cottages. Nestled along Franklin Pike, there is Athens Family Diner – an unassuming Greek restaurant where Auerbach and Patrick Carney, his co-conspirator in The Black Keys, have chosen to unveil “Let’s Rock” – their first album since 2014’s Turn Blue . But first, there are more pressing matters to attend to.
“What are you going to order?” asks Carney, peering at his partner over the top of the restaurant’s oversized menu. Lately, Carney has been on a strict diet prior to his wedding – just two days earlier – to singer Michelle Branch in New Orleans. As a consequence, he’s looking lean and healthy; clearly hesitant to despoil his waistline with too much souvlaki and spanakopita.
Without looking up, Auerbach says, “I’m getting what I always get.” This, it transpires, is a basic ham-and-cheese omelette.
“OK, I guess I’ll just get eggs,” says Carney, before confiding: “I never know what to order. Usually, I just get what the other person is ordering. That’s how I got to Nashville. Dan moved, so I said, ‘I’ll have what he’s having…’”
Wearing a dark-blue mechanic’s shirt with “Clarence” embroidered over the breast pocket, Auerbach is as matter-of-fact about his food choices as he is about the process of making The Black Keys’ ninth studio album. “Honestly, we just went in and did it like we always did,” he says. “You know what they say about riding a bike? It really was…”
“Hey, Clarence!” interrupts a large, older man wearing a baseball cap, plaid shirt and baggy jeans. “How ya doing?”
“Hey Al,” answers Auerbach. “Doing great.”
“Do you know who that is?” asks Auerbach. Carney looks across the table and mouths, “Who is it?”
“That’s Al Anderson,” says Auerbach. “You remember? He was in NRBQ.”
“WE BOTH NEEDED TO TAKE A LONG BREAK”
PATRICK CARNEY
Auerbach delivers this factoid as if it should be common knowledge – despite the fact that NRBQ’s prime took place long before Auerbach was born. But since moving to the city in 2010, Auerbach has become a lightning rod for musicians of a certain age. Like his father, Chuck Auerbach, an antiques dealer specialising in Americana artefacts, his son curates musicians of a certain vintage – including John Prine, Duane Eddy and Johnny Cash’s former bassist Dave Roe, as well as sessions drummers Gene Chrisman and pianist Bobby Wood.
As Auerbach tells it, working with these players has occupied his time exclusively for the past few years – to the exclusion of his band. “To be honest, I wasn’t even thinking about The Black Keys at all,” he admits. “It was completely out of my mind. Playing arenas felt like some sort of distant dream…” He trails off, looking over at Carney for a second. Carney nods for Auerbach to go on. He knows this story. He’s lived it. “I
