XL Recordings

This sort of thing became inevitable once Jack White moved from Detroit to Nashville: He already hired the trumpet player from a local Mexican restaurant to play on the Stripes' Icky Thump, and now the Raconteurs have corralled bluegrass legend Ricky Skaggs and country singer Ashley Monroe for seven-man/one-woman acoustic jam of "Old Enough", a fairly convoluted song from their recent Consolers of the Lonely. The original version of the song, with its fiddle and acoustic guitar solo, leans toward country, and this version makes that influence explicit.

The most interesting elements are the new ones. With her soft-edged, Parton-esque voice, Ashley Monroe sounds great harmonizing with Brendan Benson White leans in toward acoustic alpha male Skaggs, whose graceful mandolin picking fills the transitions from one section to another. Toward the end, they segue wittily into the Everly Brothers' "Wake Up Little Suzy", and in the video, directed with a shaky hand by photographer Autumn de Wilde, the song ends with repeated punctuation and a smattering of applause for each other. It sounds a bit self-congratulatory, but here's hoping this expanded group has some more crossover-ready covers in them.

Video:> The Raconteurs [ft. Ricky Skaggs and Ashley Monroe]: "Old Enough"
[original version from Consolers of the Lonely; out now on Warner Bros.]

The Raconteurs have teamed up with country artists Ricky Skaggs and 22-year-old Ashley Monroe for a re-recording of their new single 'Old Enough', taken from their 'Consolers Of The Lonely' record, released earlier this year.

NME Radio are set to broadcast The Raconteurs live this weekend.

Photo by David Hill

Ah, the joys of touring: two hours of sleep a night amid constant bumps and chatter...flat Dr. Pepper and soggy Funyuns for breakfast, lunch, and dinner...wearing the same unwashed American Apparel tees with your band's logo day in and day out...your driver, your bus, and all of your belongings up and disappearing one afternoon. Wait, what? No, really. That's one exceedingly rare "joy" of touring UK duo the Kills just had the misfortune of experiencing.

A recent message from the band, relayed via Domino Records, tells all:

While on tour in the United States with the Raconteurs, our bus and driver have vanished. It is thought that the driver has commited grand theft auto or that he is in some kind of trouble. The bus and driver were last seen on the morning of the 26th of September at a Prevost dealership in Los Angeles. The driver got some new tires and was set to head to Austin, Texas to meet back up with us. His phone has been off since that afternoon.

Federal investigators and police are searching for the bus and driver through out the U.S. and Mexico. We are currently traveling to Nashville and have no luggage or belongings. But aside from this bad luck, touring with the Raconteurs has been great, so we're in good spirits. The magnitude of the loss hasn't quite sunk in to our shell shocked bones. If anyone...

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The Killers are set to close the Leeds Festival tonight (August 23) with a set on the Main Stage after Bloc Party and The Raconteurs.