The Black Keys are on the road again, now with opener Jessica Lea Mayfield, who contributed harmony vocals on the Attack & Release track "Things Ain't Like They Used to Be" and recorded her own CD with the Keys' Dan Auerbach as producer.

The group performed last night at The Valarium in Knoxville, Tennessee. Reporting from the show for his Knoxville News blog, Randall Brown writes: "The Black Keys put on a great rock show ... The sound was amazingly full for a band made up of just a drummer and guitarist. Big, big sound. Great rhythms and big beats. All you want in a rock show."

Tonight, they'll play one more show in Tennessee, this time at the New Daisy Theater in Memphis, before heading to Texas for a string of shows across the state: a sold-out show in Dallas on Friday, then the weekend in Austin for the Austin City Limits Festival and a show at Stubb's BBQ, and finally next week in Houston, for a Tuesday night show at the Meridian.

The Houston Chronicle's Andrew Dansby spoke with drummer Patrick Carney about the upcoming show, about the new record, and about a number of unrelated, tangential things. Prefacing the interview, Dansby writes this of the band:

The duo ... has doggedly defied any [numerical] limitations in its personnel and made five albums over six years that are progressively varied, interesting and exciting. Pegged as a blues band at the outset, the Keys have instead charted an evolution through efficiently complex garage rock.

To read the interview, visit chron.com.

For tour information, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.