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Tab Benoit: Legacy: The Best of Tab Benoit

By C. Michael Bailey

Louisiana-born guitarist and singer Tab Benoitis from so deep in the wetlands that it's almost all ocean. Hailing from Houma, the seat of Terrebonne Parish, Benoit has indisputable bayou bona fides and the exposure to that musical and cultural melting pot called the Gulf Rim that comes with it. Telarc's Legacy: The Best of Tab Benoit demonstrates his expansive musical palette and sure grasp of zydeco, creole, blues, R&B, and rock as viewed through the NOLA prism. Selected from Benoit's ...

Tab Benoit: Brother to the Blues

By C. Michael Bailey

Tab Benoit can always be counted on to release solid Creole blues recordings. That special mix of the Mississippi Delta and Louisiana deep bayou is what makes Benoit stand out from an ever-burgeoning population of blues artists. He capitalizes on this fact by giving his road band a vacation and taking on Louisiana's Leroux as his rhythm section. If that was not enough, he also brings some friends along for the ride. The result, Brother to the Blues, proves Benoit's ...

Tab Benoit: Brother to the Blues

By Jim Santella

Roots music comes in several flavors. Some enthusiasts look to early Mississippi Delta roots blues, others the music of W.C. Handy. They have a lot in common. Some look to rock & roll, and others, like Tab Benoit, look to country & western music for their blues roots. It all comes together when you look back far enough.

Blues pioneers Robert Johnson, Tommy Johnson, Son House, Skip James and Charley Patton all shared a little from the country ...

Tab Benoit: Fever for the Bayou

By Jim Santella

Tab Benoit's title track reflects the Zydeco music of his homeland. It's in his blood. Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he's grown up with this “poor man's music" and has come to find that it's a perfect way of expressing what ordinary people like us feel every day of our lives. The message is plain and simple: live every day to the fullest and don't look back. No regrets, no self-pity, no envy. Just go on, don't think about what ...

Tab Benoit: Fever for the Bayou

By C. Michael Bailey

Looking at the cover photo of Tab Benoit's new recording, Fever for the Bayou, one would fear that the big label creep might have cleaned up Mr. Benoit a bit too much. The guitarist/singer is sporting a crisp purple (mauve, as my wife would say) shirt, a stylish gelled haircut, and perfectly cultivated five-o'clock shadow. Is this the same artist who delivered the staggering Nice and Warm in 1992, representing the greatest hope for the blues since Stevie Ray Vaughan?

Tab Benoit and Jimmy Thackery: Whiskey Store Live

By C. Michael Bailey

Blues artists Tab Benoit and Jimmy Thackery are turning out to be one of the better pairings coming out of the Telarc Blues stables. Independently, the two artists deliver their own unique brand of guitar-based blues, soul, and R&B. Together, Benoit and Thackery meld the disparate elements of their styles into a corrosively unified vision. Not bad Mojo for two white guys playing the blues in the 21st Century.

In their 2002 studio release, Whiskey Store , both ...

Tab Benoit: The Sea Saint Sessions

By C. Michael Bailey

Houma, Louisiana native Tab Benoit has proven to be one of the most credible and enduring blues artists to emerge in the past 20 years. In the mini-blues revival that has slowly been gaining steam since the death of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Benoit stands alone in being the practitioner of gritty Creole swamp blues. His sound has been honed not by hours in the studio, but years on the road. His composition and performance reflect this fact.

Mr. Benoit began ...