Healthy White Baby – Self-Titled

Their name comes from a line in Raising Arizona, which suggests a fine pedigree. Less edgy than the Black Keys, less experimental than the White Stripes, Healthy White Baby is arguably the most rooted rock ‘n’ roll combo to emerge since the V-Roys left the building. Danny Black (of the Blacks) leads this bare-bones trio on vocals and guitar, with Laurie Stirratt (of Blue Mountain) on bass and Ryan Juravic on drums. Black’s playing is meaty and raw, sprinkled with bent strings and blues licks. Stirratt’s harmony vocals hover just beneath the surface of the songs as Juravic’s spare drumming propels them forward. Black is also the principal songwriter (the sole cover here is a lonesome take on Bill Monroe’s “With Body And Soul”); love has seldom sounded so painful, or so inevitable, as on his song “Soul”: “Love’s a disaster/I know it’s after my soul.”