New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Shore Fire Media) Dr. John's collaboration with The
Black Keys' Dan Auerbach, 'Locked Down,' landed at #33 on the Billboard 200 this week, making it remarkably the highest chart debut in the New Orleans legend and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer's 50+ year career. It also debuted at #1 on Billboard's Blues Albums chart and #8 on the Rock Albums chart, and had an excellent first week abroad, entering the charts in the top 100 in many countries, including #16 in Holland, #27 in Norway, #40 in New Zealand, #51 in the UK, and #51 in Ireland. 'Locked Down' has received rave reviews everywhere from SPIN and Pitchfork to Rolling Stone and NPR, with many echoing
David Fricke's assessment in Rolling Stone that "Dr. John has made his best album in four decades."
Dr. John (a.k.a. Mac Rebennack) premiered 'Locked Down' live onstage with Auerbach and the band from the album over three nights at Brooklyn Academy of
Music (BAM) last weekend, as part of his three week residency at the venue. The New York Times' Jon Pareles wrote of the performance: "Physical and spiritual, earthly and supernatural, a memento mori and a promise of transcendence - all were aspects of Dr. John's music for the night."
Here's what critics have been saying about 'Locked Down':
"... as if conjured out of the air, his new record, "Locked Down," arrives, and it is one of the best of his career. As
Bob Dylan did with "Time Out of Mind" and
Tom Waits did last year with "Bad as Me,"
Dr. John does here...creating something magical, the embodiment of everything he's done but pushed in a clear new direction. - Los Angeles Times, Randall Roberts
"['Locked Down'] stands out among his recent work, not so much for the leap of faith he took collaborating with Auerbach but because it turned out so damn well...a weird-ass gumbo of grotty funk and R&B, littered with raunchy reeds, leering organ riffs, and blustery guitar." -Pitchfork, Stephen M. Deusner
"Incredibly, in the few weeks they spent creating Locked Down, Dan Auerbach and
Dr. John roused some spirits not heard from since the late '60s, and got them to speak about what it means to be alive and kicking in 2012." - NPR "All Things Considered," Tom Moon
"A wonderfully spicy, intoxicating and timeless gumbo that is as brilliant and thoroughly otherworldly as anything this musical treasure ever has given us." - WBEZ, Jim DeRogatis (of
Chicago Sun-Times)
"The closest he has come to making a masterpiece in a very long time...[Dr. John] is in full splendor." - The
Boston Globe,
James Reed
"Full of muscled, vintage R&B grooves, fevered soloing, psychedelic arrangements and oracular mumbo jumbo, it's the wildest record Rebennack has made in many years...All told, Locked Down is that rare thing: a retro exercise that looks forward, by an old hustler and a young player who, in the process of making a great record, probably taught each other a thing or two." - Rolling Stone, Will Hermes
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