Music News: Brendan Benson on the Future of the Raconteurs

According to a report on nme.com (Yeah sometimes they actually do get something right!), folk troubadour and part-time Raconteur Brendan Benson has claimed that the band will release more music together. The four-piece, consisting of Benson, Jack White (The White Stripes, The Dead Weather) and the rhythm section of Patrick Keeler and Jack Lawrence have released two fine albums to date - Broken Boy Soldier and Consolers of the Lonely.

However, with White investing more and more time to the Alison Mosshart assisted project of the Dead Weather, the future of the Raconteurs was becoming as unclear as the future of the White Stripes. It has since emerged that Keeler and Lawrence have reformed their simply sublime and abhorrently overlooked original project, the Greenhornes, and that the Raconteurs will be back in the studio after the Greenhornes put out a new record.

"We're all busy," explained Benson. "Patrick and LJ are starting The Greenhornes again, putting that back together and I think they're touring, which is great news because that's been a long time coming.

"They had a record that they sat on forever during The Raconteurs, so that's finally coming out and, of course, Jack [White] has The Dead Weather and all that."

On the future of the Raconteurs, Benson had this to say:

"We haven't talked about it, but [doing more]'s not out of the question. The Raconteurs is a band that was founded on this impulsive basis. It was always spontaneous for us and we want to keep it that way. So when the time is right and everyone converges we'll do it."

To those who have missed the Greenhornes during the first incarnation, they are a trio consisting of the aforementioned Jack Lawrence on bass, Patrick Keeler on drums and frontman Craig Fox. A heavy blues and rock influence shaped their sound into something rather special and it is a shame that the band were lost amidst the brief emergence of the Detroit blues scene (Detroit Cobras, the Von Bondies) in the early '00s.

As for Benson, catch him touring in Ireland this coming September. He is playing a flurry of dates around the country including slots in Cavan Town, Mullingar, Clonmel and Offaly, as well as Cyprus Avenue in Cork.

Below is a stream of the White Stripes covering the Greenhornes' classic Shelter of Your Arms. The original is even more wild. Check it out.

The White Stripes - Shelter of Your Arms