Wake Up, Little Susie
I drove to and from the Monterey Peninsula today, which gave me about 5 hours in the car to listen to music during. I put it on shuffle, and it was quite the variety of music today.
I listened to the new Daði Freyr album Too Much Not Enough (it was good, I’ll write about him later). Lots of things came up that I could write about but won’t today, with lots of good memories: my introduction to Peaches in P!nk’s “Oh My God,” Luscious Jackson’s “Naked Eye,” “Lose My Breath” by Destiny’s Child, Hole’s “Gutless,” Bomba Estéreo’s “Soy Yo,” “Living in America” by the Sounds, and Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam’s “I Wonder If I Take You Home.” All great songs, worthy of writing about, but not what I’m going to write about tonight.
After taking over new rock music with the White Stripes, Jack White started wandering a bit. After the White Stripes’s smash hit Elephant came out and their follow-up album, Get Behind Me Satan, Jack White started another band called the Raconteurs. I liked their first album, Broken Boy Soldiers, but not a lot. I really liked their second album, Consolers of the Lonely.
My favorite song on the album is “Top Yourself,” which I performed in drag multiple times. But my second favorite song on the original album is “Old Enough.” It’s about the inexperience of youth, and the folly of inexperience. The album version is excellent. It’s essentially a folk song, with lead singer Brendan Benson taking lead and Jack White backing him up. There are some arena rock chords, some fiddle, and a whole lot of fedoras. Great song. But this article isn’t about this version, even though you can and should watch/listen below.
Something that I’m just now realizing is the hallmark of an excellent musician is the ability to cover your own song. Robyn did it brilliantly on her 2026 album with a cover of her own song from 2002, “Blow My Mind.” But “Old Enough” is possibly the best example of this phenomenon that I know of. Several months after the album release for Consolers of the Lonely in 2008, the Raconteurs released a new version of “Old Enough” featuring then-up-and-coming country singer Ashley Monroe and the legendary bluegrass musician Ricky Skaggs. Skaggs is hardcore MAGA and receiving awards from the absolute piece of shit in the White House, but he plays the hell out of a mandolin, including on this song.
The remake of “Old Enough” is essentially split in two, but not evenly. There are the vocal sections and the instrumental sections. There is no question that “Old Enough” works better as a country and bluegrass song. The music is fabulous: detailed, interesting, highly technical, and with excellent chemistry between Ricky Skaggs on mandolin and Jack White on guitar, who both also do backup vocals.
Side note: for those who have read this blog so far, it may surprise you to learn that I love country music. I’m just picky about the music itself and also don’t become a fan of musicians whose “lifestyles” I disagree with. I’ve struggled with liking most country music since about 2000, but the entire 20th century was filled with incredible country music. It’s one of the things that makes America American; it also just so happens to be filled with terrible people, although certainly not exclusively. Most country artists just aren’t doing anything that impressive to me right now. Although “Old Enough” is almost 20 years old now, it remains one of the best country recordings of the 21st century, if not the best.
Where this remake really shines is the vocal harmonies of Brendan Benson and Ashley Monroe. The lead vocalist in the original album version, Benson specifically and intentionally takes a backseat and focuses on harmonies to Ashley Monroe’s voice, who takes melodic lead. Their voices complement each other so well it’s a little unnerving. This track is all about chemistry, and they had so much fun making and recording this. The actual recording session also comprises the music video, so just watch it. You can see them looking in each other’s eyes, pushing each other to be better and greater.
At 4:36 on the recorded version and 5:16 in the music video, Monroe and Benson switch vocal parts. Brendan Benson takes back lead melody and Ashley Monroe, in her vivid coloratura soprano, takes the harmonic part and trills throughout the rest of the song. Their joint vocal performance in the last minute or so of this song is one of my favorite things to listen to, period. In the video, you can watch Benson being so impressed by Monroe’s voice that he pushes himself to match her energy, and even eventually slips back into harmony because he can’t keep up. It’s breathtaking.
It reminds me in some ways of the Traveling Wilburys—a supergroup of incredible musicians doing things together they never did on their own. This group was together for this one recording only, but what a powerhouse group. They left us this one amazing recording. This is when country (and, really, any music) is at its best.