Equally glaring, watching that televised blues museum, was the fact that, currently, most of those fans are white. Well, so are the young bands that have most creatively revived the sound for their own snaggle-rock purpose: the White Stripes (natch), the Greenhornes, the Gossip and, most devotional of all, Akron's the Black Keys. Listening to their second album, Thickfreakness, you'd never guess that singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach and skinman-producer Patrick Carney aren't direct descendants of their stylistic forebears, so much do waters both Muddy and Mississippi seem to run through their veins. It's retrograde, for sure, but particularly at their live shows, the Black Keys pound out their swampy tunes with so much savor, conviction and sheer diabolical energy, you can't help but walk away feeling like the blues have never been more alive.