Graham Reid | | <1 min read
Tab Benoit: Fever for the Bayou
Blues singer/guitarist Benoit recorded this album live in Nashville in 2006 with his band Louisiana Leroux the night before he picked up the BB King award for entertainer of the year and best contemporary performer. Guests on stage included Jim Lauderdale, Kim Wilson of the fabulous Thunderbirds and Jimmy Hall of West Willie.
Benoit can play up a hurricane but he also has an aching voice on the slower material, and sometimes gets to the midpoint of blues and country-rock which can be pretty appealing.
But mostly the attraction lies in his guitar work which is gruff and abrasive, or sweet and stinging. He can make that thing cry too.
Benoit is obviously an entertainer -- this is a varied set from wall-shakers to melancholy moods -- and if the blues is your thing you'll already know of him (possibly because last year's Power of the Ponchartrain featured at Elsewhere).
If not . . .
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