Riff Of The Month: The Black Keys – Coal black mattie
Coal Black Mattie
The Black Keys’ 10th studio album Delta Kream is a collection of covers celebrating the works of early 20th century hill country blues players including Junior Kimbrough, John Lee Hooker and Mississippi Fred Mcdowell. The riff we’re looking at here is from a Ranie Burnette-penned song, though Dan Auerbach’s guitar part pays homage to R. L. Burnside’s rendition. Indeed, Burnside’s own guitarist Kenny Brown also features on this new recording.
The first thing to be aware of is the shuffle feel – a typical blues groove. To play this rhythm, keep your strumming hand moving constantly down and up, but make your downstrokes last twice as long as your upstrokes. This’ll help you get a feel for the overall timing, but of course the note content is a little more varied, so you may need to mix up the exact picking pattern a little. Be sure to watch our slowed down video performance to see how it’s done.
CHEAT SHEET…
Appears at: 0:09-0:30
Tempo: 92bpm
Key/scale: G minor pentatonic scale Main techniques: Slides, shuffle feel, pull-offs