The Black Keys are a rock duo from Akron, Ohio, and recently won two Grammy Awards, including the best alternative music album prize for their latest album, “Brothers.” I was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, a former industrial town on the bank of the Ohio River. It’s at the southern tip of the state, bordering on Kentucky and West Virginia. I never actually lived in Ohio—my father relocated our family to Chicago, and my mother returned to her Ohio hometown to finish the final trimester of her pregnancy with me. But feel an affinity with the state. It’s not a glamorous place, and I follow with interest the careers of Ohio artists and applaud any artist able to earn a name for themselves.
I remember clearly when the Black Keys’ first album was released, 2002’s “The Big Come Up.” At the time, drummer Patrick Carney was married to his teenaged sweetheart, Denise Grollmus. Grollmus is an excellent writer, and detailed in a post for Salon her love affair and ultimate painful divorce. It’s a moving story, and humanizes her relationship with a rising rock star through reminiscences of the Black Key’s first appearance on “Conan,” and she describes a poster for a band she and Carney formed before the Black Keys.