Black Keys’ Auerbach emerges on solo debut

March 9, 11:34 PMIndie Music ExaminerNeal Rogers

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Auerbach struck out on his own for Keep It Hid.

“Somewhere in heaven, Jimi Hendrix must be smiling.”

That was the recurring thought circling through my mind the first time I saw The Black Keys perform live.

I’d listened to the Keys before seeing them, but as anyone familiar with their music will tell you, the difference in experience between hearing their recordings and seeing them perform is as wide as the chasm between calling a local “chat line,” and, well, experiencing the real thing.

The two-piece from Akron, Ohio, has a raw and rollicking sound that is perhaps the most derivative, in today’s digital era, of Hendrix’s fusion of psychedelic guitar fuzz and delta blues.

Perhaps what is most amazing when first experiencing the Keys live is realizing what a sound two old high-school buddies can generate, with the bearded Dan Auerbach handling guitar and vocals, and the bespectacled Patrick Carney laying down the rhythm to form what has been accurately labeled as “two-man stomp.”

With only one other member in a band that has released five full-lengths since 2002, including last year’s Attack & Release, it’s fair to question why Auerbach, 29, felt compelled to release his first solo album, called Keep It Hid.

One simple answer is that Keep It Hid, released by the Keys’ label Nonesuch Records on February 10, was an opportunity for Auerbach to have complete creative control.

“Pat and I, whenever we get together and start playing, it’s like we’re back in the basement, when we were 16 and 17. We have this immediate connection, this unspoken thing that just happens and that will never go away,” Auerbach recently told the Akron Beacon Journal. “[But] it's amazing to be able to play music with other people and explore other ideas. It's just a whole different thing and I think it's good and healthy and rewarding to do that.”

Auerbach produced and engineered the record using mainly analog and vintage equipment in his home studio, Akron Analog; he also played a variety of instruments, including drums, guitar, percussion, and keyboards.

“This record is a mixture of things I like to listen to — psychedelia, soul music and country harmonies,” Auerbach told his label.

The variety of instruments was part of Auerbach’s inspiration for straying from the Keys’ signature sound; he’s currently touring with Texs-based four-piece band Hacienda.

“I wanted a live, organic sound,” said Auerbach, who, with his long beard and trademark jeans, vest and flannel shirt tends to resemble a lumberjack more than a bluesman. “Nothing was too plotted or planned, just a lot of spontaneity.”

Another reason for branching out was the opportunity to include both friends and family. Auerbach’s uncle James Quine contributes vocal harmony and electric guitar on the heavy, urban-trip “Street Walkin’ (Auerbach’s cousin is the late rock guitarist Robert Quine, who recorded with Lou Reed, Brian Eno and Tom Waits.)

Auerbach’s father Charles wrote “Whispered Words,” a melancholy tune about being lied to, time and again.

"Basically, [my dad] writes the lyrics, and then it's open to my interpretation," Auerbach told NPR Music. "He's not musical. He doesn't play an instrument, [so] when he hears a song of his completely fleshed out with a melody and instrumentation, it really bowls him over."

Reviews have been gracious to Keep It Hid. The Washington Post’s Geoffrey Himes wrote that the record’s 14 songs suggest, “The novelty aspect of the Black Keys’ guitar-drums format is the least interesting thing about the immensely talented Auerbach, just as the same format is the least interesting thing about the White Stripes' Jack White.”

The album opens with “Trouble Weighs A Ton,” a heavy, soulful ballad about the heaviness of the burdens we all share. The song, and the disc, begins with the lyrics “What’s wrong, dear brother?/ Have you lost your faith?/Don't you remember a better place?/Needles and things, done you in like the setting sun/Oh, dear brother, trouble weighs a ton.”

Any inclination that Auerbach’s solo debut might be a gloomy disconnect from the sound of The Black Keys is dismissed during the first chords of the second track, a blues rocker titled “I Want Some More.” It’s vintage Keys, and the first indication that this collection is as unpredictable as it is reliably solid.

One of the album’s standout tracks is “When the Night Comes,” a stirring ode to the comfort that can only be found laying next to a lover at day’s end that features backup vocals by 19-year-old Ohio native Jessica Lea Mayfield.

As Himes wrote, “When the Night Comes” is a song that would leave Van Morrison — like Hendrix, in so many other instances — both proud and, perhaps, a bit envious.

The disc closes with “Goin’ Home,” a soulful, acoustic track about the joy of returning to one’s roots after a long journey of self-discovery, ending with the lyrics, “Forget about the things you want/Be thankful for what all you got.”

For Auerbach, and anyone with the good judgment to appreciate his unique and still-developing talents, that journey is still well underway. And we are thankful.