Dan Auerbach's 'Waiting on a Song' inspired by the fading art of Nashville session musicians

The title of Dan Auerbach’s first solo album since 2009 is “Waiting on a Song.”

But don’t mistake that for some sort of insight into Auerbach’s creative process.

This is an artist who wrote and recorded no fewer than 200 songs to arrive at the 10 he chose to feature on the album.

And consider his response when asked, “So you’ve already written and recorded more songs since the album?”

“Oh my God, yeah,” he says, with a laugh, sounding taken aback by the thought that he wouldn’t have written and recorded new material since “Waiting on a Song” came out in June.

“So you’re just always writing and recording?”

“Yeah, that’s what I do,” he says. “I don’t know how many songs I’ve actually written but I’ve recorded 40 or 50 or 60 of my own. And then I’ve done a couple other records for people like Shannon & the Clams and Robert Finley.”

The guitarist, who grew up in Akron, Ohio, and rose to fame at the helm of the Black Keys, says he’s always thought of music “in a real blue collar way: get to rehearsal on time, work as long as you can and then do it again the next day.”

And he’s never really lost that.

Hard work is the root of success

“I still come into the studio every single day at 9,” he says. “And we start working on something, you know? I love that. It’s really addictive.”

It helps that he has his own studio, which he built after moving to Nashville eight years ago.

“My family played bluegrass and I had been coming to Nashville since I was a kid,” he says.

“I’d come with my dad and we would go see music at the Station Inn. That’s hallowed ground for bluegrass musicians, the Station Inn, which you know, I could hit it with a stone from my studio. That was really important to me, to be around that stuff.”

He built the studio in “an old call center,” he says.

“It’s not very big but it’s just right. The same size as Muscle Shoals Sound or Motown or something like that, a real modest-sized studio. I do my writing sessions here. We mix here. We pretty much have stuff to do every day.”

This album grew out of those writing sessions, in a way.

So many songs! What should we do with them?

“I had done an Arcs record with my buddies and we did a little bit of a tour,” the guitarist recalls.

“And then when I got home from that tour, we didn’t have anything on the books. So I started hanging out with my buddy Fergie, who’s one of my oldest Nashville friends. I think I probably met him almost, like, the first week I was here in Nashville.”

That friend introduced him to “these interesting Nashville characters,” people like Roger Cook, John Prine and Pat McLaughlin. And they started doing these afternoon writing sessions in the summer.

“We were writing pretty much every day of the week,” he says. “And I just had so many songs, I figured ‘I should probably try to record some of these.’"

That recording was done on the fly with a stellar cast of Nashville session aces.

“I have the luxury of having the studio,” Auerbach says.

“But I also have the luxury of having these musicians work so fast and they love the challenge of doing stuff that’s different, not your normal everyday Nashville thing that makes a lot of money in town. So they just really dig into it and have fun.”

They would record every Thursday, Friday and Saturday, he recalls. “And we could do four, five, six songs a day. We wrote it and recorded it in the summer, with beautiful Tennessee sunshine. And when I listen to the record, it puts me in that place.”

Keep it organic

There was no goal going into the sessions as to what kind of record they wanted to make. It was more an organic response to the songs.

“We would hear a work tape from the writing session,” he says. "And then from that, we would just sort of make stuff up. So the sound of the music is really the people involved. So those personalities really dictated how the music felt.”

And now that the album is finished, those same personalities are going out with Auerbach as the Easy Eye Sound Revue.

The band includes Gene “Bubba” Chrisman on drums, Bobby Wood on keys and backup vocals , Russ Pahl on guitar, Dave Roe on bass and backup vocals, Pat McLaughlin on mandolin, guitar and backup vocals, and Dante Schwebel on guitar.

Amazing musicians and people

These musicians, he says, are “some truly amazing, inspiring people” who happened to play on many of his favorite records ever made.

“I mean, the drummer played on ‘Natural Woman’ by Aretha Franklin and ‘Suspicious Minds’ by Elvis Presley, ‘Son a Preacher Man’ by Dusty Springfield,” Auerbach says with a laugh. “And now here he is, on stage, behind me.”

If it reads like bragging, trust me, there is clear enthusiasm in his voice as he talks about these other players, such as Wood, who played on Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.”

“You know the horn line?,” Auerbach asks, before singing the chorus and accompanying horn line.

“He wrote that. I’m surrounded by all these amazing people. So I’m just gonna try to soak it in and enjoy it, you know? Because it really is such an honor to be able to play with these guys.”

And what makes it even better, he says, is “We’re not up there playing Elvis songs. We’re playing stuff we created together just recently and it feels so great to be able to do that because those guys are still on fire. I have never played with better musicians.”

What's the best part?

Being able to share the studio and stage with these players, he says, has been the best part of this whole experience.

“Just to be able to say I met them, honestly,” he says. “They mean that much to me. They really do. And the more I play with them, the more I realize how that human element is so important, is so crucial to everything we love about music.”

And they’re part of a fading tradition.

“These session musicians are some of the greatest musicians of all time,” he says. “And they could make a living going and working in a studio that was being paid for by a label that could afford it. Now labels can’t sustain that kind of thing.”

For now, though, they’re out on a national tour in support of an album that captures a bit of the feel of those classic old recordings that made Auerbach a fan.

They're in rehearsals when Auerbach checks in, by phone, from Nashville.

When it's all said and done...

“I just put my suitcase on the bus this morning,” he’s pleased to report. “I’m excited. Rehearsals were a lot of fun. And this band, we really haven’t ever toured. We’ve done a couple shows here and there. But this will be an interesting experience for us all.”

And when this tour is over?

“I think that when this tour is done,” he says, “whatever I do next will just sort of happen naturally.”

But is it likely to include these same musicians?

“I mean, I have some stuff on the books that we’re doing this year,” he says. “I’ve got a couple things lined up. Absolutely.”

Dan Auerbach & the Easy Eye Sound Review

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 20.

Where: The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren St., Phoenix.

Admission: $32.50.

Details: thevanburenphx.com.

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