Amazon.com For their latest, Akron, Ohio duo The Black Keys have brought forth an EP of six songs by Junior Kimbrough. This is no mere dalliance; the late elder Mississippi blues musician was a powerful influence on guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney. Their three previous albums, full of dusty grooves and simple but impassioned dynamics, would have found strong rapport with Kimbrough, who unfortunately died before they could ever meet. However, his widow, Mildred gives her passionate endorsement for these performances in the form of a short phone message that appears at the end of the disc. Among the highpoints is "Meet Me in the City," which positively shimmers as the plaintive vocal soars over a virato-ed guitar. The Black Keys, besides paying their heartfelt respects, also demonstrate the breadth and durability of Kimbrough's music. --David Greenberger
Customer Reviews:
Another Black Keys MasterpieceNovember 8, 2008 Tyler Goff(Ann Arbor, MI) Chulahoma is six songs long, and they are all spectacular. The songs are all covers from a Blues Great, Junior Kimbrough. You Better Run: The Essential Junior Kimbrough
The covers were so well done and appreciated, that Junior's wife called the Keys and left a message saying how excited she was to hear them. In turn, her voicemail was placed on the album after "My Mind Is Ramblin"
The songs will make any skeptic of blues music think twice. Great Album.
Speechless..........September 26, 2008 TBC(Georgia) 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I don't read or write reviews, but this is beyond music. I made the mistake of listening to this on my I-pod at work and the trance-like state it produced was detrimental to my daily corporate productivity. I closed my office door and pretended to be hard at work and listened to this album from start to finish continuously for 8 hours. I wept during "Meet me in the City" on the third and fourth listens and was emotionally spent and drained by the end of the day. This takes human pain and suffering and longing and even joy; things that are usually inutterable and inexpressible and puts them into music. Junior had something inside him and music was the only way he could get to it and bring out. Thank God for Junior and The Black Keys.
Pretty Good EPSeptember 24, 2008 New Clash Fan(New York) I just recently started listening to The Black Keys and this was the third CD I picked up from them. It is a covers EP, so it's cool to see what influenced them coming up. Not a great CD but definitely worth buying if you are a fan.
chula homaMay 16, 2008 D. Goetjen(CT) i love this kind of music and was very happy to find in on amazon. my son introduced me to the black keys, and i love to play it at work.
The right directionApril 17, 2008 R. M. Snyder I am a fan of the Black Keys, I can't seem to move on to anything else. Everytime I try something else, I am back to the Keys before long. The Big Come Up grabbed me and sucked me in, no mediocre songs, a true 5 star album. I went through the other albums and though i have enjoyed them all Chulahoma is special. The newest album Attack & Release is supposed to be a new direction with Danger Mouse production influences throughout. That album is a new interesting direction, but good? More time will tell. It is for sure that the direction Chulahoma took was spot on. A groovey bluesy achingly immaculate tribute to an underground legend in Junior Kimbrough. Oh if only it had been a full album, alas six brilliant songs to make any blues lover gush.
