Tab Benoit's got the Blues

NEWTON — Tab Benoit is a Cajun man who’s definitely got the blues. Born November 17, 1967, he grew up in Houma, Louisiana. A guitar player since his teenage years, he hung out at the Blues Box, a ramshackle music club and cultural center in nearby 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. The nightly impromptu gigs were enough to inspire Benoit to assemble his own band — a stripped down bass-and-drums unit propelled by his solid guitar skills and leathery, Cajun-spiced vocal attack. He took his show on the road in the early ‘90s and hasn’t stopped since.
Medicine, Benoit’s latest release on Telarc International, a division of Concord Music Group, successfully joins two gifted guitarists/songwriters in a session that proves greater than the sum of its very talented parts. The 11-track recording features seven new Benoit originals co-written with ace songwriter Anders Osborne. Engineered by David Z, Medicine spotlights the work of keyboardist Ivan Neville, drummer Brady Blade, and bassist Corey Duplechin. Fiddler/singer Michael Doucet of BeauSoleil makes a special appearance on three tracks. The three-time Grammy-nominated and four-time Blues Music Awards “Entertainer of the Year” winner has earned his place in the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame, joining Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson, Fats Domino, Buddy Guy, Jerry Lee Lewis, Leadbelly, Louis Prima, Little Richard and many more.
Tab Benoit performs Friday, Aug. 16, at 8 p.m. at The Newton Theatre, 234 Spring Street in Newton, NJ. Tickets start at $29 and are available for purchase at The Newton Theatre box office, online at www.TheNewtonTheatre.com, or by calling 973-940-NEWT.