Fresh Press
2008 New Orleans Traveling Road Show (ONE TIME ONLY SHOW) on 8/27/08 at Belly Up Aspen, Aspen's Best Live Music Venue
New Orleans musicians to kick off Democratic convention
Tab at podium at congressional briefing
Press with video
~ THE WASHINGTON CITY PAPER
The Blues Music Associations "Contemporary Male Artist" honor
~ ABOUT.com:Blues
Press Pass Tab Benoit
~ FALLS CHURCH NEWS
Live!
~ THE WASHINGTON POST
Free Ride
~ WASHINGTON POST EXPRESS
Tab Benoit
~ WASHINGTON CITY PAPER
Award-Worthy Performance, (05/14/08)
This live set was recorded in Nashville on May 9, 2007, the night before the Blues Music Awards. Tab Benoit, on vocals and guitar, is backed by his band Louisiana Leroux, which consists of Jim Odom (second guitar), Nelson Blanchard (keyboards), Tony Haselden (banjo), Leon Medica (bass), David Peters (drums), and Mark Duthu (percussion). Guest artists include Jim Lauderdale, Waylon Thibodeaux, and three harp players: Kim Wilson, Jimmy Hall, and Johnny Sansone.
"Night Train," one of Benoit's usual openers, is performed here as well as ever. This rockin' song with its blistering guitar solo sets the stage for this set. "Solid Simple Things" is just wonderful. As a Louisiana heritage artist, Tab Benoit's sound combines elements of both Blues and Country music and it is displayed here. The addition of a second guitarist allows Benoit the freedom to concentrate on both his vocal and on being a bandleader, as Nelson's organ solo adds yet another dimension to Benoit's usual sound.
"Darkness" has another dramatic and passionate vocal. "Too Sweet For Me" opens with Kim Wilson and Benoit trading vocals before Wilson's harp takes over. On "Moon Comin' Over The Hill" Benoit trades vocals with Jim Lauderdale. "Lost In Your Lovin'" sounds like an R&B classic, however, it and all but two of the songs included on this album are original. Here Benoit gives us another great guitar solo.
Jimmy Hall wrote "Rendezvous With The Blues" and Hall sings the vocal and plays harp on this wonderful version. Benoit's guitar work is especially nice as he is inspired by Hall's passion. Hall closes the song with his best John Lee Hooker imitation. "Fever For The Bayou" features Johnny Sansone guesting on harp. Bassist Leon Medica's "New Orleans Ladies" has a catchy lyric, "from Bourbon Street to Esplanade," and the melody along with Nelson's organ evokes memories of Procol Harum's 1967 hit "A Whiter Shade of Pale." On "Muddy Bottom Blues" we once again get to hear Jimmy Hall on harp. At the end Benoit and Hall sing together. The album closes with "Stackolina." This time it's Wilson on harp and Waylon Thibodeaux on washboard.
In Memphis, on the night following this performance, Benoit won the Blues Music Awards for both Best Contemporary Male Performer and Entertainer of The Year. This CD illustrates his live performance and serves to document this great achievement.
Richard Ludmerer is a contributing editor at BluesWax. You may contact Richard at blueswax@visnat.com
~ BLUES WAX
Once upon a time, Tab Benoit was a Cessna pilot making oil deliveries over the marshes of Louisiana and serving as a flight instructor for others who wanted to learn how to fly. It was in the air one day when he came to an important life decision.
"I just realized that flying wasn't doing it for me and I decided to concentrate on music," says Benoit, on the road to support his latest CD, the live album "Night Train to Nashville." "I figured if I could fill up my week with music in New Orleans and get five gigs a week at a $100 a show, I could make a living doing that. I decided then and there that I was quitting and when I told my boss, he laughed...hard."
His family also wasn't too crazy about the idea but Benoit knew that blues music had been in his heart and blood from the day he was born and he felt he could be successful.
"My dad was a musician and my mom said I used to kick on the beat when I was in her stomach, so my love for music stated with conception," he laughs. "I lived in the Bayou and everyone plays where I lived. I can't even remember not playing."
Influenced by Ray Charles, Benoit taught himself the guitar and played some weddings and gigs in town, but really made a name for himself at the Blues Box, a ramshackle 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.
One night while performing, David Hasselhoff heard him play and invited him to be on the debut episode of his television show "Baywatch Nights," playing on stage in a blues club.
"That was something to have Knight Rider asking me to be on his show," Benoit says. "That was an interesting experience and I really learned a lot about the whole process; it was fun."
Over the years, Benoit has released strong-selling albums such as Brother to the Blues and Wetlands, his most authentically Cajun installment of his entire 10-year discography. He has become one of the most popular bluesman in the country.
Last year saw Benoit, known around the blues world for his Cajun grit, nab a Grammy nomination and he was also named Contemporary Blues Male Artist of the Year and the B.B. King Entertainer of the Year by the Blues Foundation.
"I just love the music," he says. "There's something about blues that touches you."
Night Train To Nashville captures the magic and intensity of Benoit in a live setting, joined by his faithful backup unit and New Orleans mainstay, Louisiana's LeRoux, and a series of guests representing some of the most talented voices on the current blues, Cajun and country scenes: harpist/vocalist Jimmy Hall (Wet Willie), guitarist/vocalist Jim Lauderdale, harpist/accordionist Johnny Sansone, fiddler/washboard player Waylon Thibodeaux and harpist/vocalist and Fabulous Thunderbirds frontman Kim Wilson.
Benoit will be playing many of these selections when he appears at the Fairfield Theatre on May 30 and promises that his fans will get a show that is unlike any they have ever seen.
"For me, no two shows are ever the same. I wouldn't even know how to do that," he says. "When you see my show live, it's not even mine, it's ours. I always allow the audience to be a part of it and I take requests and go with the moments. You never want to pass up an opportunity to have something happen that you'd never see happen again. Those moments happen when you least expect them."
It's not just the music that makes Benoit special. His "Power of the Pontchar-train" album, released in June 2007, was, in many ways, a musical tribute to the natural beauty of his homeland and the dedication and perseverance of those who still live there.
An environmental activist 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.
"Being able to have a forum because of the music is incredible," Benoit says. "When I made a decision to do this, I told myself it has to be for a bigger reason. It has to be something that I can do to help. I asked myself, 'How can I help the most people in the time I am allowed?' and music seemed to be that way. All I really want out of life is to make the world a little bit better than the day I was born and the Voice of the Wetlands is a way to do that."
In 2006 Benoit appeared prominently in "Hurricane on the Bayou," a documentary by filmmaker McGillivray Freeman that chronicles life in Louisiana after Katrina. "Hurricane on the Bayou" played in IMAX theaters in the U.S., Canada and Europe throughout 2007 and is now available on DVD.
"'Hurricane On The Bayou' has been great. Everybody that has seen it has been blown away by it, educated by it and saddened by it," he says. "What we're seeing right now in Louisiana, nobody else around the country has seen it. If you don' take care of New Orleans, you ain't going to have New Orleans. It's a hair trigger away from disaster. I'm trying to encourage people to exercise democracy. Pay attention to what's around you and use your voice to tell the government what you want."
As for his place in the blues world, Benoit just hopes that the people who appreciate his music will also listen to what he's saying outside of the songs.
"All I'm really trying to do here is encourage people to take care of the things that they love. Take care of yourself, your culture, the arts, the Earth, take care of each other and make this a better place," he says. "We need more people to think like that and the world will be a better place."
Tab Benoit will be at Fairfield Theatre Co., 70 Sanford St., Fairfield at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 30. Tickets are $42, $32 for members
~ THE HOUR ONLINE
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The 4th Annual Tab Benoit Golf Classic
