JOE WALSH AND DAN AUERBACH COLLABORATE ON A SONG AND CELEBRATE THEIR MUTUAL MENTOR AND UNSUNG GUITAR HERO, GLEN SCHWARTZ
Easy Eye Sound, the record label founded by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys have unveiled the latest piece of their upcoming blues anthology Tell Everybody! (out August 11), which pays tribute to Glenn Schwartz – a formative mentor to both Dan, as well as to Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Joe Walsh.
The two musicians – along with The Arcs – back the unsung Ohio hero on his original ‘Daughter Of Zion’, which stems from recording sessions at Nashville’s Easy Eye Sound Studios just before Schwartz’s passing in 2018. For Schwartz, this final chapter collaborating with Auerbach and Walsh – even making an unlikely Coachella debut with them in 2016 – is a fitting last twist in one of music’s most unpredictable careers.
“Glenn was my biggest rock n roll inspiration,” Auerbach remembers. “There would be no Black Keys without Glenn Schwartz, that’s for sure. I really miss him. He was a sweet man who loved the lord and loved music so much. I really respected his conviction.”
Listen to Glenn Schwartz’s ‘Daughter Of Zion (feat. Joe Walsh)’ here, produced by Dan Auerbach and recorded with The Arcs:
First rising to prominence as the guitarist of Cleveland’s influential James Gang in the 1960s, Schwartz skipped town for Los Angeles and was replaced in the band by an unknown Joe Walsh (a close friend that he recommended). Once in hippie-era California, Schwartz’s guitar chops made fans of Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Janis Joplin – and he even scored a Top 20 hit with his band Pacific Gas & Electric. But by the 1970s, he had devoted himself fully to religion, joined a commune, and was rarely heard from again for years. Auerbach met him decades later as a teenager, once Schwartz had re-emerged in Ohio to play wildly experimental blues sets in the state’s bars and clubs.
‘Daughter Of Zion’ was a song Schwartz first wrote in the early 1970s as a member of the All Saved Freak Band – now given a complete blues reinvention with Walsh and Auerbach for Tell Everybody! (21st Century Juke Joint Blues From Easy Eye Sound).
Tell Everybody! is composed of exclusive, Auerbach-produced recordings from Easy Eye Sound Studio – featuring blues legends like Bentonia’s Jimmy ‘Duck’ Holmes and the Delta gospel sounds of Leo ‘Bud’ Welch; alongside brilliant youngbloods like Detroit duo Moonrisers and Korean-American Kentucky native Nat Myers. In addition, the collection features never-before-heard tracks from both The Black Keys and Auerbach’s solo work.
Preorder Tell Everybody! here: https://click.ees.link/telleverybody