The Black Keys Continue Their Support of the North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic

by Davis Coen

It may be a little out of the ordinary to find a world-famous rock group on a list of festival sponsors, but The Black Keys have proven over the years to be just that—not ordinary in any way, shape, or form.

Throughout an industrious career, performing more than a thousand shows and producing over a dozen records, The Black Keys have managed to achieve success with both commercial and independent music fans, but just as impressively have helped North Mississippi Hill Country Blues reach a wider audience than any other mainstream artists.

In fact, although they originate from Akron, Ohio, the band has become one of Hill Country Blues music’s best ambassadors. Despite that only guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach, who makes up one-half of the famously full-sounding duo, has performed live at the festival, The Black Keys’ recent role as a Picnic sponsor has proven to be as important to the whole operation as if they were playing. Particularly since getting back on track after a hiatus for Covid.

The importance of the Picnic’s mission is absolutely not lost on drummer Patrick Carney. In fact, he credits the music of R.L. Burnside for starting his musical connection with bandmate Auerbach. Both band members had brothers who were the same age and in the same year of high school, yet the two didn’t become friends until urged by their siblings to connect with each other.

“When Dan came over to my house, and we started talking music, he noticed that I had an R.L. 45 (RPM record), and was like ‘man, I listen to a ton of this,’” Carney recently told The Local Voice.

Carney, who discovered Burnside’s music through a collaboration album recorded with indie-rock band Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, titled A Ass Pocket of Whiskey, had never met anyone who shared his uncommon interest in the Hill Country blues master. “I was the only other dude that was his age that had anything to do with that—you know, with what little knowledge I had.”

The two went down into Carney’s basement and Auerbach began “basically playing R.L. riffs.” He said Auerbach then introduced him to Junior Kimbrough’s music, as well others like T-Model Ford, from Greenville, Mississippi, who was also on the Fat Possum record label.

“That was our first musical bonding … even on our first record, there’s a bunch of shout-outs to that music,” said Carney. “Even as the band evolves, we always come back to it.” He recalled in 2019, when they had just come off a big arena tour, Auerbach called him and said that Kenny Brown was in town, and that he should come by his studio Easy Eye Sound, located in Nashville.

In a matter of two days, The Black Keys and Brown, along with another Picnic mainstay, beloved Oxford guitarist, singer, and bassist, Eric Deaton, recorded what became the band’s 2021 album Delta Kream. Although their goal was just to jam with them, he said “it really brought us back to our roots.” Thereafter a relationship grew between the duo and Brown, and eventually his wife Sara.

“Kenny’s the one that’s on all those records, that’s still alive,” said Carney. “He’s our OG, so it’s important for us to help out with what him and Sara are doing. We’re proud to be part of it.” He said that the band seldom devotes such enthusiasm to a sponsorship, and that they typically lean more toward supporting youth baseball, making the Hill Country Picnic rather unique for The Black Keys.

The group’s local presence has been palpable in the last couple of years. Besides being a major sponsor of the Picnic, they also played a sold out show at The Lyric theater, which included Brown and Deaton joining them on stage.

“It was cool, because Oxford, Mississippi, changed our lives,” said Carney. “That’s where we got our first big break. Our first record came out on a small label out of L.A., but the label that we always wanted to be on was Fat Possum, ya know, since we were teenagers … and that became the beginning of a twenty-plus year relationship—signing to the label that inspired us to do it in the first place.”

Although they’ve returned multiple times since their big Oxford show, prior to that, The Black Keys hadn’t played locally since Proud Larry’s in the early 2000s.

Regarding the aura and energy of North Mississippi—particularly in Marshall County—where much of the great Hill Country Blues hails from, he described its intangible effect as “magical.” Carney said that when he’s here he can “feel the history,” and that “not every place is like that.”

He likened the experience of listening to Hill Country blues music in North Mississippi to that of hearing a punk rock band like The Ramones while in the Lower East Side of New York City.

“It all makes sense. I picture what it used to be like,” he said. “Memphis has this thing, and North Mississippi does as well.”