Elton John and Jack White teamed up to create a new blues song with a decidedly vintage sound called “Two Fingers of Whisky” in a clip for the forthcoming documentary American Epic Sessions. According to Pitchfork, the music was entirely improvised using lyrics written for John by his longtime collaborator Bernie Taupin. With John taking the lead on piano and vocals and White lending his rhythm guitar and harmonies on the chorus, the two famed musicians recorded the number on-the-spot using technology developed in the 1920’s.
The American Epic three-part documentary was produced by Jack White, Robert Redford, and T Bone Burnett for PBS and followed the history of record labels traveling through rural America in the early 20th century to find new customers by recording folk, blues, country, and traditional music previously never captured before on record. As a companion to the documentary, American Epic Sessions presents contemporary musicians from across genres recording on a machine created entirely from parts scavenged from the original recording devices of the 1920s. In addition to music from John and White, Sessions includes Alabama Shakes, the Avett Brothers, Beck, Merle Haggard, Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, Nas, Willie Nelson, Blind Boy Paxton, and more. Sessions debuts on PBS June 6.
