MUSIC

Guitarist, singer and songwriter Tab Benoit, who makes his home near New Orleans in Houma, Louisiana, is definitely a man with the blues. He's one of a handful of bright rising stars on the modern blues scene who paid his dues as a road troubadour playing 250 nights a year. He's worked each of his brilliant records the old-fashioned way, playing anywhere and everywhere he and his band could play. Unlike so many others before him, Benoit understands that blues is not a medium typically in favor with 50,000-watt commercial rock radio stations. However, in 1992, because of his major breakout tracks, “Nice and Warm” and “Bone Pickin”, radio began playing his music on the same commercial stations that were playing the popular acts of the day such as The Dave Matthew’s Band, Spin Doctors, Blues Traveler, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, etc. It was the first time since the death of the Stevie Ray Vaughn that a new roots Artist was receiving heavy rotation on commercial Rock radio stations across the country. Since that time Tab has recorded with Junior Wells, Willie Nelson, Billy Joe Shaver, James Cotton, Cyril Neville, Kim Wilson of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Henry Gray, and Jimmy Hall of Wet Willie to name a few.
Besides being Louisiana’s No.1 roots export, Tab is a driving force behind Voice of the Wetlands, an organization working to save Louisiana’s wetlands. In 2010, he received the Governor’s Award for Conservationist of the Year from the Louisiana Wildlife Federation. He also starred in the iMax motion picture Hurricane on the Bayou, a documentary of Hurricane Katrina’s effects and a call to restore the wetlands.
And now, after fifteen solo recordings, winning the dual awards of B.B. King Entertainer of the Year and Best Contemporary Male Performer at the Blues Music Awards in Memphis (formerly the W.C. Handy Awards), three Grammy nominations and a budding movie career, Tab is a part of Louisiana folklore and legend. And though critics are comparing him to some of the greatest bluesmen and guitarists of all time, Tab doesn't aspire to be the "next" anybody. But his music, like the title of his 2011 album, "Medicine," might be just what the doctor ordered.