by JOHNSON CUMMINS

There’s little doubt that Muddy Waters’ observation that “blues had a baby and named it rock ’n’ roll” is true. Given the sad state of the blues right now, it’s no wonder rock ’n’ roll bands are so afraid to show their blues roots. Thankfully, while Colin James, Dan Aykroyd, Eric Clapton and Robert Cray pillage 12-bar blues for festival-circuit fodder or pop consumption, there are still a lot of young, underground bands keeping the music alive by keeping it raw, primal and swampy.

Although Akron, Ohio’s Black Keys are a little skittish with the blues tag, it’s undeniably their touchstone. “When most people think of blues, they think of this stuff I really hate,” says guitarist/

singer Dan Auerbach from a tour stop in Baltimore. “Blues is an influence, but it’s not just what we do. I would think if we were to play a blues club, people would just stand up and walk out. A lot of people who say they like blues music listen to stuff like John Mayer, and that is just horrendous garbage. That kind of music is like those jeans you can buy that are pre-faded, with rips already in them. I just don’t get that shit and we don’t want to have anything to do with it.”

As much as the Black Keys squirm out of the blues bracket by not accepting invitations to festivals, making sure they are not racked in the blues section at record stores and so forth, when pressed hard enough, Auerbach will admit to being a fan of real blues. Hell, they are signed to Fat Possum, a label that got its foot in the door with blues (and is now breaking out of its niche with the recent signing of Montreal electro-punks We Are Wolves). The Oxford, Mississippi label can boast about signing up the last of the blues artists with direct lineage from the early-’50s juke joints scattered down the dirt roads off Highway 61.

With the recent passing of Fat Possum recording artist R.L. Burnside sounding the death knell for anything that could be considered “real” blues, and all the juke joints just a distant memory now, Auerbach can consider himself lucky to have seen the real deal. When he was only 17, he was able to make a road trip with his father to visit the blues Mecca that was Junior Kimbrough’s juke joint in Mississippi before it burned down. Although he didn’t get a chance to see Kimbrough on the trip (which was shortly before Kimbrough’s death), he did return to Akron changed for life.

“It was just amazing. I was absolutely in love with that music and didn’t even blink the whole time I was down there. It was like a different planet, with glitter on the walls, all these crude paintings, everybody drinking beer out of the can, ladies asking you to dance and this amazing jukebox. It was just so pure and so real because they were so isolated from everything.

“When I think of the blues, that’s what I think of. The mainstream blues market, on the other hand, is so crammed with bullshit right now, it’s no wonder kids can’t get into it.” n

With Nathaniel Mayer at la Tulipe tonight, Thursday, Nov. 17, 9 p.m., $18.50

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