What’s the biggest difference between music that sounds retro and music that sounds timeless?
Dan Auerbach, singer/guitarist of The Black Keys, one of the most successful bands from the last 20 years, needs less than two seconds to think of an answer.
"Great songs, that's the difference," Auerbach says, via phone. "Because you know when you hear a song that's retro it's like, 'Man this sounds old but it f---ing sucks.' [Laughs] That's usually how it goes when things are just focused on retro, is they miss the most important part, the great songs - and the incredible musicians.
The debut album by a 21-year-old country singer Auerbach has co-produced, Alabama native Dee White’s “Southern Gentleman,” is the most timeless sounding new record I’ve heard so far this year. And this assessment comes from a listener not particularly into country-music. I’m 2,000 times more likely to listen to Black Sabbath than to Willie Nelson. But the vocals, melodies and songs on White’s album are strong enough they transcend genre.
White’s crystal croon and easy charm - combined with Auerbach and David Ferguson’s tasty production - take tracks like “Wherever You Go” and “Under Your Skin” to classic places.
"Alison Krauss heard Dee's voice and freaked out," Auerbach says. "She was just going to come sing harmony on one song and ended up singing on four songs. That's the kind of voice he has. It's a real gift."
"Tell the World I Do," White's tender ballad with Krauss, the Grammy-stockpiling roots-music star, is an album highlight. About midway through that track, the production unfurls to orchestral-pop splendor. White was in Florida, traveling in the van his dad uses for deliveries for the family's antiques business, the first time he heard "Southern Gentleman" final mixes, after Auerbach sent them digitally. "We were just kind of blown away by how it turned out," White says.
White checks in for this phone interview from the couch in his Nashville apartment. His bulldog, named Beignet, is nearby. As is a fish tank containing fish White retrieved from the same creek depicted on the "Southern Gentleman" album cover photo.
Born in Dothan, White grew up in a tiny Elmore Country community called Slapout. He and his family spent a lot of time at nearby Lake Jordan and for close to 10 years White's life revolved around competitive bass fishing - his biggest in-the-wild bass catch was a seven-pounder. "There's all the small-town stuff," White says fondly of life in Slapout. "People hang out at the Petro - it's that kind of place."
Country singer and Alabama native Dee White. (Courtesy Alysse Gafkjen)
Attending high school at Edgewood Academy, one day as part of drama class White and other students were asked to audition for an upcoming school musical production that was lagging in participation. Many other students treated these auditions as a goof. When it was White's turn to stand up in class and sing "it turned out to be a good thing instead of a joke, and I guess that it was the first time I ever realized there was something there."
In 2015 or so, White assisted his dad with a fateful antiques delivery to Millbrook, near Montgomery. They transported a marble, cast iron and wood ice-cream-parlor table to a home there and lugged it inside. They noticed gold records on the wall. Turned out their delivery was to Harold Shedd. Now retired, Shedd was a country-music player known for signing eventual stars like Shania Twain and Toby Keith and producing Alabama and Reba McEntire hits. White's dad and Shedd struck up a friendship. A couple months later, White was hanging out with his dad and Shedd when White receive a phone call that a guitar he'd taken in for repair was ready. "That's how Harold found out I played music," White says. Soon, Shedd was asking White to play a song for him. One of the first was John Anderson's 1992 country hit "Seminole Wind."
Although White's listened to contemporary radio music - like pop-band Maroon 5 - and classic-rock - Aerosmith, Styx, Stones, etc. - from an early age he identified more with vintage country. He's particularly drawn to Alabama country artists, like Hank Williams. The first song he ever learned on guitar was Williams scion Hank Williams Jr.'s 1979 classic "Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound." "My endeavors in music, as far as listening, have just been crawling back in time from that point in country music," White says. "I'm still doing that. I guess what draws me to that music is I understand some things about it, from being around older people or whatever else, that maybe other people (my age) were not around and don't have a comprehension for. And I love origins on anything I'm interested in, and I don't think country music is any exception to that."
It was Shedd who drove White up to Nashville to have lunch at 8th Avenue South haunt The Sutler with Ferguson. Having seen talent like Johnny Cash first-hand, he was audio engineer for Cash's American Recordings era gems, Ferguson seemed skeptical. "So, you want to be a country star, huh?" is one of the first thing he said to White, the singer recalls. They eventually hit it off though. Ferguson then drove White and Shedd in his Lincoln to Easy Eye Sound, Auerbach's recording studio, just down the street.
They walked into the control room. Auerbach still had a guitar around his neck from a writing session earlier. He took the guitar, a vintage Gibson acoustic, and put it around White's neck. There in the Easy Eye control room, White sang an original song he'd been working on, called "Voodoo" for Auerbach, Ferguson and Shedd.
"It's just so rare someone with such a singular voice," Auerbach says. "You can almost count them on one hand. Most people just sound like some sort of version of Merle Haggard or something like that, but Dee just has a really unique one of a kind thing and I love that about him."
Growing up in Slapout, White says he didn't really hear much Black Keys music. But after working with Auerbach so tightly on "Southern Gentleman," he become a fan and thinks the band's new single "Lo/Hi," a psych-stomp that's the first Black Keys music in five years, "fire."
White calls Auerbach a "workaholic." That's probably an appropriate assessment. In addition to ramping up the Black Keys machine again (Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney recently announced a fall arena tour, including an Oct. 1 show at Nashville's Bridgestone arena), Auerbach has released well received solo LPs and side-projects. Through his label Easy Eye Sound, Auerbach's also issued acclaimed releases by soul-singer Yola, bluesman Robert Finley and garage-combo Shannon and The Clams, as well as unearthing material from guitar outlaw Link Wray. Over the years he's also produced records for swamp-funk icon Dr. John, post-modern chanteuse Lana Del Rey and '80s hit-makers The Pretenders.
While the blues was the dominant influence on early Black Keys records, White says he and Auerbach bonded over vintage bluegrass and country acts like Ralph Stanley and Charlie Rich. On “Southern Gentleman,” in addition to co-producing and co-writing, Auerbach contributed lead and rhythm guitars, bass, harmony vocals, percussion and more. " I played anything that I needed to play, but so did everybody else," Auerbach says. “The way we cut records here at Easy Eye in Nashville is we fill the room with musicians, and the singers sing live with the band. We come up with the arrangements on the fly.”
White says cutting his vocals with the band was essential to the album's vibe. " I can't really even imagine doing it another way," White says. "There's no way to really know what it needs unless the artist is in there, doing the thing."
Meanwhile, co-producer Ferguson was the one who'd often suggest dropping in rural touches like a banjo here or there, "kind of like the hillbilly devil on the shoulder," White says. "And it was beautiful." Ferguson and Auerbach "work off each other like magic," he adds.
Session-musician heavies like guitarist Billy Sanford, keyboardists Pig Robbins and Bobby Wood, drummer Gene Chrisman and harmonica player Mickey Raphael were brought in. White, then just 19, was recording alongside dudes who’d helped make classic songs like “Suspicious Minds,” “Son of a Preacher Man” and “Whiskey River.” “I was just trying to be the best I could be in the moment,” he says, “and just another one of those people that they worked with. Mostly, I was trying to learn off everything that was going on. I think that’s all you can do when you’re around people like that, is hope some of it will rub off on you. Those are the people who made the best records ever.”
“Southern Gentleman” is a seamless 10-song album. But the song “Crazy Man” is probably its peak. Lyrically, “Crazy Man” is in the voice of a character regretting “wild, wild nights and wasted days” and promises changed-ways to his love. White’s vocal performance is nuanced far beyond his years. This caused some listeners to even compare his singing to the late great Roy Orbison’s. (While he certainly appreciates being compared to a legend, White says he never listened to Orbison’s music “other than stuff you can’t help but listen to if you walk out in public, like ‘Pretty Woman,’” before these comparisons.)
For much of the album, Auerbach paired White up with ace Nashville tunesmiths for songs and co-writes. But White’s the one who brought “Crazy Man” - written by Ann Morton, Jim Mundy and Peggy White - to the sessions after hearing it performed at a Branson, Mo. “back-porch kind of thing.” During White’s brief stint as an Auburn University student studying public relations and living at Peachtree Apartments near campus, the singer demoed “Crazy Man.” But the song took on a new life when White recorded it at Easy Eye. “It was like, ‘We’re going to cut it and give it a try’ and everything went right,” White says.
Working on "Southern Gentleman," several tracks of which previewed on a 2018 EP, White and company cut seven or eight songs a day. They ended up with around 30 tracks. It's intriguing to imagine what else is in the can. Speaking of extra things, when asked about a possible release for the 15 or so solo tracks Auerbach reportedly cut last year at iconic Sheffield studio Muscle Shoals Sound, an Auerbach representative declines comment. Auerbach relishes working in the scene he's cultivated at Easy Eye. Still he doesn't rule out cutting tracks again at Muscle Shoals Sound, where Black Keys made much of breakthrough 2010 album "Brothers," with White in the future. "I love David Hood and all the folks down there," Auerbach says, referring to The Swampers bassist and Muscle Shoals Sound co-founder. "It's such a beautiful studio and there's definitely magic in the air.
Q Prime, one of music’s elite talent management firms, thinks White has a legit shot to ascend. With offices in New York, London and Nashville, Q Prime’s clients include little bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers and Metallica. Black Keys and Auerbach are also clients, as are Eric Church, Muse and other notables. The release of “Southern Gentleman” has garnered coverage from outlets like Rolling Stone and NPR. (AL.com previously highlighted him in a “50 songs by Alabama musicians from 2018 to know” list.)
While arrangements often bloomed at Easy Eye, the vocal melodies didn't really change from White's iPhone-recorded sketches to final "Southern Gentleman" versions. White says, "I try to follow my instincts. It's hard to leave that kind of stuff alone - and there is beauty in leaving it alone and just doing what feels right."
Auerbach says when it comes to vocal melodies, “You either understand that stuff or you don’t. I think Dee just has a natural knack for melody and that combined with that crazy voice that he has, it’s a deadly combination.” As the soul-howl behind Black Keys hits like “Tighten Up," Auerbach knows just how far an uncommon voice and melodic sense matched to strong songs can take an artist.
While White’s music shows an affinity for the past, as far his look goes, he’s usually pretty much decade-neutral. He looks like a normal, shampooed longhair who might otherwise be working in a coffeeshop or indie bookstore. This is a wise move. Dressing yesteryear full-time only increases retro musical dings - just ask Greta Van Fleet or The Black Crowes.
In conversation White comes off as very mature for his age. "Every once in a while, I would be reminded he's 19 but most of the time he's very stoic," Auerbach says. "You can tell he thinks very deeply. He's busy absorbing things."
That’s not to say White’s trapped in a soul from 1962. He recently holed up with his Xbox for a two-week video-game binge of “Red Dead Redemption 2.” “It’s a good way to clear the mind,” he says. “In my personal life I’m pretty much like anyone my age.”
Dee White and his band will perform 9 p.m. April 26 at Huntsville’s Tangled String Studios, located at Lowe Mill, address 2211 Seminole Drive. Tickets are $20 via squareup.com. More info at deewhite.com.
