Tab Benoit – I Hear Thunder (Whiskey Bayou Records)
When Tab Benoit launched his career with 1992’s Now & Then, he introduced something fresh into the world of ‘swamp blues.’ With nods to both Slim Harpo and Lightnin’ Slim, Tab Benoit seemed a high-energy dose of Earl King with a distinctive spice all his own. His gritty, soulful vocals provided the rich cream to balance and complement a fiercely robust, tone-rich, Telecaster brew. His debt to the genre revealed itself across 16 stand-out releases in the less than two decades to follow – drawing from both Louisiana and Texas influences. One better, he used his celebrity to champion real-world causes – like the preservation of the sacred bayou wetlands and receding coastlands that spawned him – all the while, retaining his laidback, Louisiana charm.
Anyone fortunate enough to have witnessed a live Tab Benoit show knows – and understands – his penchant for releasing as many live albums as studio recordings, which owe as much to his absolute spontaneity as a player, if not his creative strengths as a songwriter.
But then something changed. His release of Medicine, coming a full four years after ‘08’s Night Train To Nashville, seemed uncharacteristic to a man with fire in his belly and a road warrior’s work ethic like no other. The clear momentum he’d gained over the course of his burgeoning career was obvious. He had it. And then he lost it.
This year’s release of I Hear Thunder comes 13 years after what Benoit refers to as a creative hiatus. Whatever the reason for his sabbatical, these ten fresh tracks serve notice that he’s fully back, entirely re-energized and remains, as his fans have come to expect, a true force of nature. The fact that he’s again teamed up with Swedish-born, New Orleans-based, singer-songwriter-guitarist/wunderkind, Anders Osborne, simply amplifies the potential of this powerful rebirth.
The spirited title track is proof-of-the-pudding, as fiery and aggressive a guitar attack as ever to lift off a Benoit release. Backed by a time-tested band – long-time co-conspirator, Anders Osborne (guitar), Terence Higgins (drums) and Corey Duplechin (bass), the track provides a blistering guitar interplay between Benoit and Osborne. At times, it borders on being a fist-pounding, beer-swilling cousin to something you might expect from ZZ Top, save a captivating instrumental segue at the 2-minute mark.
Tab’s own “The Ghost of Gatemouth Brown” pays tribute to Gate’s legendary contribution to “the sound of heaven coming out of the swamp” – a full-fledged bayou stomp replete with scorching leads from both players.
The slow-speed “Still Gray” takes on the hue of a C&W ballad, Benoit’s voice working perfectly as the lower register of a guitar, adds import to the message of long-lost love, well faded.
“Inner Child” seems another ‘love gone sour over time’ song which, musically, underlines the drum chops of Terence Higgins, ably supported by Duplechin’s bass while a pair of sumptuous guitar solos buttress the track.
With what feels, at first, like a laidback novelty song, “Watching the Gators Roll In” is a love song to the wilds of the swamp as Benoit toasts the crickets, bullfrogs and “googly-eyed” gators who make up the homegrown ‘bayou band’ he’s grown to love enough to play to. A cowrite with Osborne and Porter Jr., the track takes little time growing on you despite its obvious ‘cuteness’.
One of the album’s hardest-hitting jewels is the Tab-penned “Overdue,”’boasting a slower, tougher blues guitar sound you might hear from a Hendrix or a Trower. It’s well-paced to make the most of the fat tone of both guitarists and is also the perfect track to accentuate the rich quality of Benoit’s swamp-soaked, soulful vocal – accented by a hearty chuckle, just prior to launching into a fiery guitar solo. An apology to his fans, this is a stunning track.
The Tab original, “Why, Why” marks his concern for the state of the world as it asks the hard questions we all face while dueling guitars speak volumes to each other, driven forward by Higgins’ buoyant backbeat.
The upbeat “Little Queenie” features co-writer George Porter Jr. (The Meters, Earl King), who unleashes his highly-animated brand of big bottom end as the perfect foil to the tasteful textures of Benoit’s guitar, as he sings praises for a love he doesn’t deserve.
The Benoit-Porter Jr.-Osborne-penned “I’m a Write That Down” proves the album’s most dynamic track as Porter Jr.’s guest on bass adds significant punk, if not funk, which serves as a springboard to a more relaxed Benoit vocal and a pair of guitar solos which seethe and snarl in joyful intensity. This is the Benoit composition with the greatest impact and the one-two punch of Benoit and Osborne’s guitar chemistry refused to quit. A great ‘getting even’ track.
“Bayou Man” is a Benoit piece co-written with his drummer, which provides a rockier edge to close out with. Duplechin’s bass steps up to meet Higgins’ driving pulse, packing more meat on the bones as both guitarists snarl with attitude as they trade in jagged lines, Benoit preaching the salvation of bayou-born love.
With a patented sound always greater than the sum of its parts, I Hear Thunder is the storm-bringer of a record we’ve come to expect from a stand-out talent like Tab Benoit. Better still is the forecast ahead. After such a lengthy absence, he’s clearly not content to tease fans with the calm before the storm when he’s got all the firepower he needs to unleash the full fury of a major meteorological event.
Welcome back, Mr. Benoit. It’s like you never left.
Find tour dates and more info here on his website: https://www.tabbenoit.com/
