The 2008 Blues Music Awards were announced in the Mississippi Delta on Thursday, May 8. For the second year in a row the winner for best Contemporary Blues Male Artist is Tab Benoit.
Now – I just went out and heard him live and in person myself last Friday, at FTC in Fairfield, CT and this man is not only an awesome live performer who can wail on his vintage fenders, but he is a great ambassador to his home state of Louisiana. A social and environmental activist for his intertwined passions for preserving the wetlands, and for encouraging Americans to be proud of their country and finding their individual voice to bring the idea of true democracy back to our political focus, and not allow the few in current political power to work to their own agenda rather than what "we the people" voice collectively. This soliloquy came after a totally smoking set of hot delta blues and was not heavy handed at all, but a natural passionate delivery of this man’s thoughts beliefs and observations delivered in a soft southern accent. There followed and even hotter second set and final encore that brought standing ovations from all in the house.
Like another of my favorite musicians; Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Tab Benoit is a performance artist – which means - best experienced live. By all means buy the CD’s and enjoy the music at home and in your car. But get yourself to a live show and REALLY experience the depth and range and personality of this fine performer who has more than just a voice for music.
Excepts below were taken from the Blues foundation and Tab’s website.
Benoit had also received a GRAMMY nomination for Best Traditional Blues Album (Brother to the Blues, CD-83639, released in 2006). In addition, he has also fulfilled his duties as president of Voice of the Wetlands, the environmental organization that he founded in 2003, and played a prominent musical role in Hurricane on the Bayou, a documentary by filmmaker McGillivray Freeman that chronicles life in Louisiana in the aftermath of Katrina. Hurricane on the Bayou is playing in IMAX theaters in the U.S., Canada and Europe throughout 2007.
Born and raised on the Louisiana bayou, Benoit has been the standard bearer for a new generation of Cajun blues musicians - a traditionalist and an innovator at the same time, grafting elements of rock and soul to the indigenous sounds of the bayou. And if dedicating his life to his musical roots weren't enough, Benoit has also been a tireless crusader in recent years - prior to the devastation of hurricane Katrina but even more so since - for the preservation of the rapidly vanishing wetlands of his native region.
