The members of the rock group The Raconteurs, Jack White, Brendan Benson, Patrick Keeler, and Jack Lawrence, knew each other since 1998. However, they worked on different projects. In 2003, the artists helped a famous country singer Loretta Lynn record her album, Van Lear Rose. One of the tracks, featured in the album, “Portland, Oregon”, was performed by White and Lynn. The album was impressively successful. It earned a Grammy Award for Best Country Album. The single “Portland, Oregon” got a Grammy for Best Country Collaboration.
In the summer of 2005, Brendan wrote music and played it for Jack White, saying that all it lacked was lyrics. Jack liked the music and immediately wrote the text. Their first song was called “Steady, As She Goes”. Then the artists wrote another one, “Broken Boy Soldier”. The two musicians decided to form a band. They asked Keeler and Lawrence to join them. The new team decided to call itself The Raconteurs, which in French means “good storytellers”. The band immediately started working on an album at Benson’s home studio in Detroit.
In January 2006, The Raconteurs officially presented its debut single “Steady, As She Goes”, which topped Alternative Songs Chart, came in second on Adult Alternative Songs Chart and settled on the 54th position of Billboard Hot 100. The single was also popular in Canada and the UK, reaching high spots on the charts. The Rolling Stone magazine called the song the second best single of 2006. In March, the band went to tour the UK. In April, it gave concerts in the USA. At that time, many organizers tried to book The Raconteurs for private events.
