One of last Summer’s memorable touring ensembles was Tab Benoit’s Swampland Jam featuring Louisiana Bayou musical treasures Big Chief Monk Boudreaux (recently honored with a 2021-22 Grammy Nomination for his “Bloodstains & Teardrops” album on Whiskey Bayou Records), plus Johnny Sansone, Waylon Thibodeaux, and Benoit. The Grammy-nominated Tab Benoit, renown throughout his thirty-plus-year career for his passionate environmental activism, performed two nights in his hometown of Houma at the 16th Annual Voice of the Wetlands Festival. He has recorded and/or performed with Junior Wells, George Porter Jr, Dr. John, Willie Nelson, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, Billy Joe Shaver, Maria Muldaur, James Cotton, Cyril Neville, Kenny Aronoff, Allen Toussaint, Kim Wilson, Jimmy Thackery, Charlie Musslewhite, Kenny Neal, Chris Layton, Ivan Neville, Jimmy Hall, Jim Lauderdale, Anders Osborne, and Alvin Youngblood Hart to name a few.

  Tab’s accomplishments as a musician are matched only by his devotion to the environmental health of his native Louisiana wetlands. He also appears prominently in the IMax motion picture Hurricane on the Bayou, a documentary of Hurricane Katrina’s effects and a call to protect and restore the Wetlands, and produced a CD to help restore that state’s Coastal Wetlands. Benoit was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center Hall of Master Folk Artists in 2020. One of the most impressive guitarists to emerge from the rich Bayous of Southern Louisiana in recent years, Tab Benoit’s guitar tone can be recognized before his Otis-Redding-ish voice resonates from the speakers. He doesn’t rely on any effects and his setup is simple. It consists of a guitar, cord, and Category 5 Amplifier. The effects that you hear come from his fingers.

(AUSTIN TX) – dougdeutschPR