Raconteurs Team With Skaggs and Monroe for "Old Enough"

Jack White has already earned his country bona fides several times over. First the dude produces Loretta Lynn's stunning 2004 crossover hit record Van Lear Rose. Then, the following year, he vacates Motown for Music City, moving from garage rock central to Nashville. Now, with his other band — if only all of our "side projects" were as awesome as the Raconteurs — White has teamed up with veteran picker Ricky Skaggs and singer-songwriter Ashley Monroe. The resulting track, a bluegrass take on the Raconteurs' "Old Enough," was released as a single exclusively through Amazon.com Tuesday and will go to other digital retailers and to stores next week. Check out this in-studio video of them in all their boot stomping glory. Hot shit harmonies, fiery licks and a smidgen of Everly Brothers abound.

And because one good video deserves another, here's Skaggs in an undated clip at the Opry. The best part? Right before he brutalizes his fretboard, Skaggs says to his band, "Well, boys, let's pick one that's got a little speed on it." Yeeeehaw!

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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