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Tab Benoit
 Tab
Benoit is a Cajun man who’s definitely got the blues. Born November 17,
1967, he grew up in Houma, Louisiana. A guitar player since his teenage
years, he hung out at the Blues Box, a ramshackle music club and
cultural center in nearby Baton Rouge run by guitarist Tabby Thomas.
Playing guitar alongside Thomas, Raful Neal, Henry Gray and other
high-profile regulars at the club, Benoit learned the blues first-hand
from a faculty of living blues legends.
The
nightly impromptu gigs were enough to inspire Benoit to assemble his
own band – a stripped down bass-and-drums unit propelled by his solid
guitar skills and leathery, Cajun-spiced vocal attack. He took his show
on the road in the early ‘90s and hasn’t stopped since.
Benoit
landed a recording contract with the tiny, Texas-based Justice Records
and released a series of well-received recordings, beginning in 1992
with
Nice and Warm, an album that prompted comparisons to
blues guitar heavyweights like Albert King, Albert Collins and even
Jimi Hendrix. Despite the hype, Benoit has done his best over the years
to maintain a commitment to his Cajun roots – a goal that often eluded
him when past producers and promoters tried to turn him and his
recordings in a rock direction, often against his better instincts.
These Blues Are All Mine,
released on Vanguard in 1999 after Justice folded, marked a return to
the rootsy sound that he’d been steered away from for several years.
That same year, he appeared on
Homesick for the Road, a collaborative album on the Telarc label with fellow guitarists Kenny Neal and Debbie Davies.
Homesick
not only served as a showcase for three relatively young but clearly
rising stars in the blues constellation, but also launched Benoit’s
relationship with Telarc that came to fruition in 2002 with the release
of
Wetlands – arguably the most authentically Cajun installment in his entire ten-year discography.
On
Wetlands,
Benoit mixes original material like the autobiographical “When a Cajun
Man Gets the Blues” and the driving “Fast and Free” with little-known
classics like Li’l Bob & the Lollipops’ “I Got Loaded,” Professor
Longhair’s “Her Mind Is Gone” and Otis Redding’s timeless “These Arms
of Mine” (Tab’s vocal style has long been influenced by Redding).
Later in 2002, Benoit released
Whiskey Store, a collaborative recording with fellow axemaster and Telarc labelmate Jimmy Thackery. Also along for the ride on
Whiskey Store
are harpist Charlie Musselwhite and Double Trouble – the two-man rhythm
section of bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton that backed
Stevie Ray Vaughn on his brief but luminous blues career.
After a prolific first year with Telarc, Benoit continued to explore the bayou backbeat in 2003 with the June release of
Sea Saint Sessions,
a collection of gritty, cajun-flavored tracks recorded at Big Easy
Recording Studio (better known among musicians in the region as Sea
Saint Studio) in New Orleans. In addition to Benoit and his regular
crew – bassist Carl Dufrene and drummer Darryl White –
Sea Saint Sessions includes numerous guest appearances by Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, Cyril Neville, Brian Stoltz and George Porter.
That
same year, Benoit and Thackery took their dueling guitar show on the
road and recorded a performance at the Unity Centre for Performing Arts
in Unity, Maine. The result is
Whiskey Store Live, a high-energy guitar fest released in February 2004.
Benoit returned in 2005 with
Fever for the Bayou,
a straightened Louisiana blues recording that seamlessly merges his own
songcraft with that of Elmore James, Buddy Guy and other masters.
Fever for the Bayou also includes guest appearances by Cyril Neville (vocals and percussion) and Big Chief Monk Boudreaux (vocals).
Benoit dug further into his roots in 2006 with the April release of
Brother to the Blues,
a recording that encompasses not only his trademark cajun blues but
also traditional country and vintage R&B. Joining him on the
project are members of the cult blues/R&B/rock combo Louisiaina
LeRoux, veteran country songwriter Billy Joe Shaver, Americana pioneer
Jim Lauderdale and cajun fiddler Waylon Thibodeaux.
An
environmental activist as well as a stellar blues musician, Benoit has
made the preservation of the endangered delta wetlands his personal
crusade. He serves as president of Voice of the Wetlands, an
environmental organization he co-founded in 2003, and he appears
prominently in
Hurricane on the Bayou, a 2006 documentary by filmmaker McGillivray Freeman that chronicles life in Louisiana after Katrina.
Hurricane on the Bayou is playing in IMAX theaters in the U.S., Canada and Europe throughout 2007.
Official Website
Show Schedule
MP3 Sample Tracks:
I'm Guilty of Lovin You
Power of the Pontchartrain
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