Review: Black Keys New Superb Blues Covers LP ‘Peaches!’ – Giving Me Old Roadhouse Vibes!

Last Friday the Black Keys, one of our favorites down here at B&V, dropped a new album Peaches! and it’s a collection of wonderful blues covers. The album was preceded by the blues stomper of a single, “You Got To Lose,” written by Ike Turner and first recorded by Earl Hooker in 1969 and later recorded by George Thorogood and his Delaware Destroyers in ’77. Now that’s a song with a pedigree. It gives me Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac era vibes. 

This album could be seen as a companion piece to the Keys’ 2021 album of blues covers, Delta Kream. That record centered on covers of hill country blues tunes. The hill country is an area in north Mississippi and hill country blues is a music made popular by Junior Kimbrough, among others.

We certainly loved Delta Kream and I could say the same for Peaches!, the sequel. Their current tour is entitled the “Peaches and Kream” tour… well played boys, well played. Although admittedly, I prefer strawberries with my cream. I guess I’m an Anglophile. 

In the interim, between Delta Kream and Peaches, the Keys have released an album almost every year like bands used to do in the 70s. Respect! They put out Dropout Boogie (2022), Ohio Players (2024) and No Rain, No Flowers (2025). That’s quite a string of records. I enjoyed each of those albums although I did hear the grumbling that they’d moved into more of a “pop” direction. 

I can’t fault any band for experimenting with their sound and seeing where it takes them. Dropout certainly rocked. And while I did say Ohio Players was flawed – there were some hip hop experiments that didn’t land for me – it still featured some great collaborations with Beck and Noel Gallagher of Oasis.

If you scratch away some of the pop adornment on those last two records, underneath you still get the hearty rock n roll of the Keys, always the beating heart of their music. There is always great drumming and great guitar on any Keys’ track. 

I should have known simply from the cover art that this was a follow-up of sorts to Delta Kream with the similar front cover images. They’ve also brought back some of the same personnel who were on that record to augment the noise generated by Dan Auerbach (guitar/vocals), Patrick Carney (drums) including Kenny Brown (guitar) and Eric Deaton (bass), with newcomers Jimbo Mathus (a variety of instruments/keyboards) and a few tracks with a horn section. The Keys are in the producers chair. 

The songs they chose for this record are a little more diverse than the strictly hill country blues of Delta Kream. Yes, there are tracks by R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough but they also cover a track written by Arthur Crudup (a favorite songwriter of the King) and Willie Griffin (The Miracles). Rest assured, all of it turns into a wonderful blues/blues rock mash in the hands of the Keys. 

I gotta tell you, this music transports me. The album starts off with “Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire” and immediately it transports me. If I close my eyes it’s like a fever dream and I can almost feel the Mississippi mud between my toes, BBQ sauce stains on my cuticles, a cold beer on the table in front of me, fished out of a tub full of ice and very cold water. I can almost feel the sweat drip down my spine. 

“Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire” was immediately added to my Playlist: Songs About Fire, it’s a great opener. Anybody complaining about the pop polish these guys employed on the last few records should wash away under the solo’ing of this song. The way “Stop Arguing Over Me” starts you’d think this was recorded live in a bar. It’s another nice riff from Auerbach. 

“Who’s Been Foolin’ You” is one of the only tracks I think I actually recognize. It was written by the aforementioned Arthur Crudup, and I couldn’t tell you who I’ve heard do it before but I just know I have. It’s a murky version of the track here and it’s perfect. It reminds me of early Black Keys. 

There are so many highlights. “It’s A Dream” is a trippy blues track with a great harmonica. The guitar on “Tomorrow Night” cuts through the air like a knife. Carney’s drumming propels that track. These guys aren’t fucking around. “Tell Me You Love Me” by Jesse Mae Brooks is another grooving blues track and could have been on the Keys’ debut album. 

“She Does It Right,” is a track by 70s blues rock band Dr. Feelgood and written by the late Wilko Johnson whose collaboration with Roger Daltrey we just loved. Maybe it’s just me, but this track gives me early ZZ Top vibes. I had to look to see if Billy Gibbons was in the credits (he’s not). It’s one of my favorites. 

After the heavy blues track “Fireman Rings The Bell” by R.L. Burnside that takes me right back to the Delta, we get the 7 minute plus jam “Nobody But You Baby.” It’s slow burn of blues left simmering on the stove next to the cornbread… I hope they’re playing this one live. 

In a way, the Keys have stripped things down to the studs and returned to the blues music that has always been the bedrock of their best stuff. Like Delta Kream, I just love this album. If the last two – which I also liked – left you cold, this is the re-entry point for you. Turn this one up with a measure of sour mash… drink it out of a Mason jar on the front stoop… and hopefully scare the neighbors. 

Cheers!