The Black Keys' Delta Kream is out today on Nonesuch Records. The album celebrates the band’s roots and features eleven Mississippi hill country blues songs by R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, among others. Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney recorded Delta Kream at Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville. The album takes its name from William Eggleston’s iconic Mississippi photograph that is on its cover. Delta Kream is available on all formats here.

The band plays “Crawling Kingsnake” and “Going Down South” on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert tonight. Their performances were filmed in Mississippi at Jimmy Duck Holmes’ Blue Front Café, which is the oldest active juke joint in America. The videos feature musicians Kenny Brown and Eric Deaton, long-time members of the bands of blues legends including Burnside and Kimbrough, with Sam Bacco on auxiliary percussion. Also tonight, in the UK, the band can be seen performing "Going Down South" on BBC Two's Later… with Jools Holland.

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

In addition to paying homage to these Mississippi blues legends with Delta Kream, The Black Keys are working with VisitMississippi, the state's tourism organization, to sponsor new individual markers for R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough on the Mississippi Blues Trail, which tell the stories of the state’s blues artists both renowned and obscure through words and images. (Both musicians are currently acknowledged on a group marker in Holly Springs entitled "Hill Country Blues.") The new markers will be erected in the proposed locations of Holly Springs and Chulahoma, MS, places closely associated with Burnside and Kimbrough—a fitting tribute to these architects of Hill Country Blues and further recognition of their enduring contributions to American music. More information about the Mississippi Blues Trail is available here.

Formed in Akron, Ohio in 2001, The Black Keys, who have been called “rock royalty” by the Associated Press and “one of the best rock ‘n’ roll bands on the planet” by Uncut, are guitarist/singer Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney. Cutting their teeth playing small clubs, the band have gone on to sell out arena tours and have released nine previous studio albums: their debut The Big Come Up (2002), followed by Thickfreakness (2003) and Rubber Factory (2004), along with their releases on Nonesuch Records, Magic Potion (2006), Attack & Release (2008), Brothers (2010), El Camino (2011), Turn Blue (2014) and, most recently, “Let’s Rock” (2019), plus and a tenth anniversary edition of Brothers (2020). The band has won six Grammy Awards and a BRIT and headlined festivals in North America, South America, Mexico, Australia, and Europe.

Delta Kream

1. Crawling Kingsnake (John Lee Hooker / Bernard Besman)
2. Louise (Fred McDowell)
3. Poor Boy a Long Way From Home (Robert Lee Burnside)
4. Stay All Night (David Kimbrough, Jr.)
5. Going Down South (Robert Lee Burnside)
6. Coal Black Mattie (Ranie Burnette)
7. Do the Romp (David Kimbrough, Jr.)
8. Sad Days, Lonely Nights (David Kimbrough, Jr.)
9. Walk with Me (David Kimbrough, Jr.)
10. Mellow Peaches (Joseph Lee Williams)
11. Come on and Go with Me (David Kimbrough, Jr.)