It doesn't take a genius to figure out that The Black Keys lead singer Dan Auerbach worships the Blues cult legend Junior Kimbrough, even though Auerbach gives his testimonial as such in the liner notes for their new EP Chulahoma; a final contractual obligation to their former label Fat Possum before moving over to V2 Records later this Fall. The Black Keys already covered Kimbrough's "Do the Rump" on their debut album The Big Come Up and they covered "My Mind Is Ramblin'" on Sunday Nights-A Tribute To Junior Kimbrough last year. Chulahoma is a six track mini-album featuring all covers of Junior Kimbrough songs, but one of them is "My Mind Is Ramblin'", so you're really only getting five all new covers.

Look, it's cute that Auerbach is such a huge fan, but this just isn't anything fascinating. "My Mind Is Ramblin'" is the best cover here, but like I said, we've already heard it. The other five are just nice and reverent versions of Kimbrough songs that are much better by the original man himself. What really would have been interesting is if The Black Keys would have re-imagined these songs in their dirty swamp-boogie realm that they reside in so well and bring something fresh and original to the table. Instead we get versions that are simply…well…simple. I'm not saying that Chulahoma is terrible, far from it. Instead it just turns out to be a mild disappointment from a band that up until this point have been anything but.