Born and raised along the same stretch of Virginia coastline as Pharrell Williams, Timbaland and Missy Elliott, the now New Orleans-based singer and guitarist Benjamin Booker makes a sound far removed from the hip-hop super-producers. 

After his father retired from the US navy and moved the family to Florida, Booker developed a taste for the rugged flavors of garage rock and the blues. It's his hybrid of those two sounds — along with a wild vocal style that is often deliberately hard to decipher — that earned the 26-year-old a spot opening for Jack White on his recent US tour.

“Spoon Out My Eyeballs” is taken from the young tyro’s self-titled debut album, which came out on UK indie stalwart Rough Trade last year and was produced by Andrija Tokic, who has previously worked with no-nonsense roots rockers Alabama Shakes, at Nashville’s much-loved studio The Bomb Shelter.

Tom Horan is Culture Editor-at-Large at NOWNESS.