Tab Benoit is a 4x Grammy nominated singer, songwriter and guitarist who has built a remarkable 30+ year career on the foundation of his gritty and soulful Delta swamp blues, acquiring a devoted legion of fans along the way, as well as 5 Blues Music Awards, including BB King Entertainer of the Year (twice) and an induction into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
After a 13-year hiatus, Tab is back with his latest effort, I Hear Thunder, on his own label, Whiskey Bayou Records. The new album was his first #1 in the Billboard charts in over 30 years. Read more about it in Billboard HERE .. Benoit's 2013 release, Medicine, was co-produced with Anders Osborne for Concord International, and garnered three Blues Music Awards. Following this notable success, Benoit took a step away from music, taking a 13-year sabbatical from recording and entering a period of creative exile.
Tab's accomplishments as a musician are matched only by his devotion to the environmental health of his native Louisiana wetlands. The notoriety achieved by his success provided him with a mouthpiece to promote his growing concern for the Louisiana Wetlands and coastal erosion from the region he calls home. Benoit is the founder and driving force behind Voice of the Wetlands, an organization working to preserve the coastal waters of his home state. In 2010, he received the Governor's Award for Conservationist of the Year from the Louisiana Wildlife Federation. Benoit has also starred 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.
Benoit 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.
Bonerama
Bonerama is a force of nature. It is a band that in many ways defies categorization. A funky rock band with brass…a funky brass band that rocks. Pick Yer Poison. Bonerama is a New Orleans-based band that fuses everything that has made that city’s music famous into a genre defying gumbo to forge its unique sound.
Formed in 1998 in New Orleans, they are regarded as the OGs of the modern New Orleans trombone fronted brass rock sound. Currently comprised of Mark Mullins (founding member, trombone, electric trombone and vocals), Greg Hicks (trombone and vocals), Chris Butcher (trombone), Michael Mullins (bass trombone and vocals) Bert Cotton (guitar), Matt Perrine (sousaphone) and Eric Bolivar (drums), Bonerama is one of the most unique, genuine and interesting bands to ever come out of New Orleans.
Equally adept at delivering extraordinary originals or blistering covers of artists as diverse as Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, The Allman Brothers, Radiohead, Jimi Hendrix--even Black Sabbath, Bonerama’s distinctive, inimitable, genuine, one-of-a-kind sound is unmatched, high-energy, fun, dynamic and bold.
Over the years, Bonerama has joined forces with many prominent musicians on stage or in the studio such as R.E.M., Little Feat, OKGo, Nicole Atkins, George Porter Jr., The Radiators, Ivan Neville, Galactic and many more. Whoever Bonerama teams-up with gets an interesting and personal take on Bonerama’s style of music infusing a piece of their own genetics into the band vibe of whoever they are joining. Simply put, Bonerama’s sound is a mélange unlike anything else. By placing the trombones, up front and center stage as the lead instrument, Bonerama is “different” in the best possible way. Not only is the band’s music unique but it is drenched with the New Orleans’s DNA that flows through the veins of the band’s members.
