I don’t have a ton to say about Dan Auerbach’s “Heartbroken, In Disrepair,” from the Keep it Hid album . I just like it. When Chris, one of my students, gave me this CD, I listened through each track and decided that Dan Auerbach is a guitarist worthy of my attention.

I can sum up his style in four words: simple, low-fidelity rock. “Heartbroken, In Disrepair” encapsulates Auerbach’s style pretty well. He’s almost a throwback to Link Wray, now that I think about it.

There’s no pristine audio here. There’s no studio polish either. Just an emotional performance using simple hooks, vintage sounds and interesting guitar effects. The guitar effect that you hear in this song is a tremolo effect. The effect rapidly changes the volume of the guitar from its original state to a lower volume and back again. This cycle is repeated many times per second and is often synchronized with the tempo of the song. The result is a choppy, helicopter-esque sound. Very cool, huh?

For more information about me and the guitar lessons that I give in and around Baltimore, visit www.ewguitar.com.