Tab Benoit
Encyclopedia
Tab Benoit is an American
blues
guitarist
, musician
and singer. He plays a style that is a combination of blues
styles, primarily Delta blues
. He plays a Fender Telecaster
electric guitar
and writes his own musical compositions. Benoit graduated from Vandebilt Catholic High School
in Houma, Louisiana
in May, 1985. In 2003, he formed an organization promoting awareness of coastal wetland
s preservation
known as "Voice of the Wetlands."
A guitar player since his teenage years, he appeared at the Blues Box, a music club and cultural center in 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. He formed a trio in 1987 and began playing clubs in Baton Rouge
and New Orleans. He began touring other parts of the south two years later and started touring more of the United States
in 1991- and he continues to this day.
He was featured in the IMAX
film, Hurricane on the Bayou
.
On May 16, 2010, at the LMHOF Louisiana Music Homecoming in Erwinville, Louisiana, Benoit was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame
.
with the Texas-based Justice Records and released a series of recordings, beginning in 1992 with Nice and Warm. These Blues Are All Mine, was released on Vanguard
in 1999 after Justice folded.
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 musicians, but also launched Benoit’s relationship with Telarc that came to fruition in 2002 with the release of Wetlands.
On Wetlands, Benoit mixed original material such as the autobiographical "When a Cajun Man Gets the Blues" and "Fast and Free" with Professor Longhair
’s “Her Mind Is Gone” and Otis Redding
's "These Arms of Mine".
Later in 2002, Benoit released Whiskey Store, a collaborative recording with fellow guitarist and Telarc labelmate Jimmy Thackery
, as well as harpist Charlie Musselwhite
and Double Trouble
; the two-man rhythm section of bassist Tommy Shannon
and drummer Chris Layton.
In 2003, Benoit released Sea Saint Sessions, recorded at Big Easy Recording Studio in New Orleans. In addition to Benoit and his regular crew, bassist Carl Dufrene and drummer Darryl White, Sea Saint Sessions included 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 March 2003 performance at the Unity Centre for Performing Arts in Unity, Maine
. The result was Whiskey Store Live, released in February 2004.
Benoit's 2005 release was Fever for the Bayou, which also included guest appearances by Cyril Neville (vocals and percussion) and Big Chief Monk Boudreaux
(vocals).
In 2006, Benoit recorded Brother To The Blues with Louisiana's LeRoux. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album
.
In April, 2011 Benoit released Medicine featuring Anders Osborne, Michael Doucet of Beausoleil, and Ivan Neville.
.
Benoit has also been involved in the conservation of the Louisiana wetlands. He is the founder of 'Voice of the Wetlands,' an organization promoting awareness of the receding coastal wetlands of Louisiana.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
, musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
and singer. He plays a style that is a combination of blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
styles, primarily Delta blues
Delta blues
The Delta blues is one of the earliest styles of blues music. It originated in the Mississippi Delta, a region of the United States that stretches from Memphis, Tennessee in the north to Vicksburg, Mississippi in the south, Helena, Arkansas in the west to the Yazoo River on the east. The...
. He plays a Fender Telecaster
Fender Telecaster
The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is typically a dual-pickup, solid-body electric guitar made by Fender.Its simple yet effective design and revolutionary sound broke ground and set trends in electric guitar manufacturing and popular music...
electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
and writes his own musical compositions. Benoit graduated from Vandebilt Catholic High School
Vandebilt Catholic High School
Vandebilt Catholic High School, located in Houma, Louisiana was founded by the Marianite Sisters of Holy Cross in 1870 and continued by the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, is a diocesan co-educational institution for grades 8-12 in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux...
in Houma, Louisiana
Houma, Louisiana
Houma is a city in and the parish seat of Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, and the largest principal city of the Houma–Bayou Cane–Thibodaux Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's powers of government have been absorbed by the parish, which is now run by the Terrebonne Parish...
in May, 1985. In 2003, he formed an organization promoting awareness of coastal wetland
Wetland
A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....
s preservation
Preservation
Preservation may refer to:* Heritage preservation:** Historic preservation, of buildings, monuments, etc.** Preservation , of books, recordings, etc.** Conservation , of the natural environment...
known as "Voice of the Wetlands."
A guitar player since his teenage years, he appeared at the Blues Box, a music club and cultural center in Baton Rouge run by guitarist Tabby Thomas
Tabby Thomas
Tabby Thomas also known as Rockin' Tabby Thomas is an American Chicago blues musician...
. Playing guitar alongside Thomas, Raful Neal
Raful Neal
Raful Neal was an American, Louisiana blues singer, harmonicist and songwriter.Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and reared by his aunt and uncle on a tenant farm in Chamberlin, West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, United States, Neal took up the blues harp at age 14, tutored by a local player named...
, Henry Gray and other high-profile regulars at the club, Benoit learned the blues first-hand from a faculty of living blues legends. He formed a trio in 1987 and began playing clubs in Baton Rouge
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Baton Rouge is the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is located in East Baton Rouge Parish and is the second-largest city in the state.Baton Rouge is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, and research center of the American South...
and New Orleans. He began touring other parts of the south two years later and started touring more of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1991- and he continues to this day.
He was featured in the IMAX
IMAX
IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
film, Hurricane on the Bayou
Hurricane on the Bayou
Hurricane on the Bayou is a 2008 documentary film that focuses on the wetlands of Louisiana before and after Hurricane Katrina.Hurricane on the Bayou is both a documentary of Hurricane Katrina's effects and a call to restore Louisiana's wetlands, rebuild New Orleans, and honor the culture of the city...
.
On May 16, 2010, at the LMHOF Louisiana Music Homecoming in Erwinville, Louisiana, Benoit was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame
Louisiana Music Hall of Fame
The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame is an IRS certified 501 non-profit organization based in the state capitol of Baton Rouge, La., that seeks to preserve Louisiana's rich music culture and heritage and to further educate its citizens and people worldwide about the state’s unique role contributing...
.
Career
Benoit landed a recording contractRecording contract
A recording contract is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist , where the artist makes a record for the label to sell and promote...
with the Texas-based Justice Records and released a series of recordings, beginning in 1992 with Nice and Warm. These Blues Are All Mine, was released on Vanguard
Vanguard Records
Vanguard Records is a record label set up in 1950 by brothers Maynard and Seymour Solomon in New York. It started as a classical label, but is perhaps best known for its catalogue of recordings by a number of pivotal folk and blues artists from the 1960s; the Bach Guild was a subsidiary...
in 1999 after Justice folded.
That same year, he appeared on Homesick for the Road, a collaborative album on the Telarc label
Telarc International Corporation
Telarc International Corporation is an independent record label, based in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, and founded in 1977 by two classically trained musicians and former teachers, Jack Renner and Robert Woods...
with fellow guitarists Kenny Neal and Debbie Davies. Homesick not only served as a showcase for three relatively young musicians, but also launched Benoit’s relationship with Telarc that came to fruition in 2002 with the release of Wetlands.
On Wetlands, Benoit mixed original material such as the autobiographical "When a Cajun Man Gets the Blues" and "Fast and Free" with Professor Longhair
Professor Longhair
Professor Longhair was a New Orleans blues singer and pianist...
’s “Her Mind Is Gone” and Otis Redding
Otis Redding
Otis Ray Redding, Jr. was an American soul singer-songwriter, record producer, arranger and talent scout. He is considered one of the major figures in soul and R&B...
's "These Arms of Mine".
Later in 2002, Benoit released Whiskey Store, a collaborative recording with fellow guitarist and Telarc labelmate Jimmy Thackery
Jimmy Thackery
Jimmy Thackery is an American blues singer and guitarist.-Career:Thackery spent fourteen years as part of The Nighthawks, the Washington, D.C. based blues and roots rock ensemble...
, as well as harpist Charlie Musselwhite
Charlie Musselwhite
Charlie Musselwhite is an American electric blues harmonica player and bandleader, one of the non-black bluesmen who came to prominence in the early 1960s, along with Mike Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield. Though he has often been identified as a "white bluesman", he claims Native American heritage...
and Double Trouble
Double Trouble (band)
Double Trouble was the backing rhythm section for Texas blues rock guitarist and lead vocalist Stevie Ray Vaughan. Originally consisting of drummer Chris Layton and bassist Tommy Shannon, Reese Wynans would later join the outfit on keyboards.-History:...
; the two-man rhythm section of bassist Tommy Shannon
Tommy Shannon
Tommy Shannon is an American bass guitarist best known as a member of the blues-rock group Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble and as an early bass player in Johnny Winter's band.-Biography:...
and drummer Chris Layton.
In 2003, Benoit released Sea Saint Sessions, recorded at Big Easy Recording Studio in New Orleans. In addition to Benoit and his regular crew, bassist Carl Dufrene and drummer Darryl White, Sea Saint Sessions included guest appearances by Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, Cyril Neville
Cyril Neville
Cyril Neville , is a percussionist and vocalist who first came to prominence as a member of his brother Art Neville's funky New Orleans-based band, The Meters...
, Brian Stoltz and George Porter
George Porter
George Hornidge Porter, Baron Porter of Luddenham, OM, FRS was a British chemist.- Life :Porter was born in Stainforth, near Thorne, South Yorkshire. He was educated at Thorne Grammar School, then won a scholarship to the University of Leeds and gained his first degree in chemistry...
. That same year, Benoit and Thackery took their dueling guitar show on the road, and recorded a March 2003 performance at the Unity Centre for Performing Arts in Unity, Maine
Unity, Maine
Unity is a town in Waldo County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,889 at the 2000 census. The town is the service center for the northern portion of Waldo County...
. The result was Whiskey Store Live, released in February 2004.
Benoit's 2005 release was Fever for the Bayou, which also included guest appearances by Cyril Neville (vocals and percussion) and Big Chief Monk Boudreaux
Monk boudreaux
Big Chief Monk Boudreaux is the Big Chief of the Mardi Gras Indian tribe, the Golden Eagles. He is widely known for his long time collaboration with Big Chief Bo Dollis in The Wild Magnolias.-History:In the late 1960s, Boudreaux joined the Wild Magnolias, the Mardi Gras Indian group led by his Big...
(vocals).
In 2006, Benoit recorded Brother To The Blues with Louisiana's LeRoux. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album
Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album
The Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album was awarded from 1983 to 2011. From 2001 to 2003 the award recipients included the producers and engineers as well as the artists...
.
In April, 2011 Benoit released Medicine featuring Anders Osborne, Michael Doucet of Beausoleil, and Ivan Neville.
Business ventures and activism
Benoit was owner of Tab Benoit's Lagniappe Music Cafe, situated in the downtown district of Houma, LouisianaHouma, Louisiana
Houma is a city in and the parish seat of Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, and the largest principal city of the Houma–Bayou Cane–Thibodaux Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's powers of government have been absorbed by the parish, which is now run by the Terrebonne Parish...
.
Benoit has also been involved in the conservation of the Louisiana wetlands. He is the founder of 'Voice of the Wetlands,' an organization promoting awareness of the receding coastal wetlands of Louisiana.
Discography
- 1999 - Homesick For The Road (Janblues)
- 1999 - These Blues Are All Mine
- 2002 - Whiskey Store (with Jimmy ThackeryJimmy ThackeryJimmy Thackery is an American blues singer and guitarist.-Career:Thackery spent fourteen years as part of The Nighthawks, the Washington, D.C. based blues and roots rock ensemble...
) - 2003 - Sea Saint Sessions
- 2004 - Whiskey Store Live (with Jimmy ThackeryJimmy ThackeryJimmy Thackery is an American blues singer and guitarist.-Career:Thackery spent fourteen years as part of The Nighthawks, the Washington, D.C. based blues and roots rock ensemble...
) - 2005 - Voice of the Wetlands (Janblues)
- 2005 - Fever For The Bayou
- 2006 - Nice and Warm (Janblues)
- 2006 - Live Swamland Jam (Janblues)
- 2006 - Standing on the Bank (Janblues)
- 2006 - What I Live For (Janblues)
- 2006 - Best Of The Bayou Blues (Janblues)
- 2006 - Brother To The Blues
- 2007 - Power Of The Pontchartrain
- 2008 - Night Train To Nashville
- 2009 - Wetlands
- 2011 - Medicine (Telarc)
External links
- Artist website
- VoiceoftheWetlands.com
- Jukejointvideo.com
- Tab Benoit collection at the Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
's live music archive