Happy Birthday Tab Benoit!

Today is Tab Benoit's birthday. If you don't know who Tab Benoit is don't worry. At one time I had never heard of him. That all changed the first time I went to Jazz Fest. The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival commonly referred to Jazz Fest.

My friend Eric who knows my musical tastes pretty well took me to the Blues Tent and told me I had to watch this guy Tab Benoit perform. I have been hooked ever since. My friend Eric took a year off to write and experience New Orleans and if interested you can check out his blog My Year of Mardi Gras. We don't always agree on music and we don't it leads to great debates, often we do agree and ends up being turned on to an artist we might not have been aware of.

Besides Tab's musical talent I also respect him for his work on saving the wetlands and the environment. Stop by the Voice of the Wetlands site to learn more about that. Tab also puts together one of the best family friendly music festivals, the Voice of the Wetlands Festival which I blogged about here.

Tab performing with the Voice of the Wetland's All-Stars photo by me..




Here Tab and the VOW All-Stars perform "Louisiana Sunshine"..

Here is something from the Festival I went to, Tab Benoit joined by Albert Castiglia on "Night Train"

Here is a song you may have heard "Shelter Me"..

Happy Birthday Tab Benoit! If you like blues, blues rock, swamp music then do yourself a favor and check out Tab Benoit.

Voice of the Wetlands Festival

This is where I went last weekend. Last Friday was pretty hectic preparing for the trip. Getting the oil change before the road trip, getting cash, and other errands. Saturday morning we got moving. An early start but not as early as I hoped. Yesc the Festival started Friday but I had work, my daughter had school and rehearsal so we knew Saturday was the day.

Why go? Here is the line up..

2015 Festival Line Up

FRIDAY NIGHT 10/9/2015

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
MIA BORDERS

7:45 pm – 9:00 pm
SOUTHERN CROSS w/ RANDY JACKSON OF ZEBRA

9:30 pm – 11:00 pm
FRIDAY NIGHT GUITAR FIGHTS

Tab Benoit

Mason Ruffner

Lightning Malcom

Randy Jackson

Albert Castiglia

Josh Garret

Tyrone Vaughan

Bart Walker

SATURDAY 10/10/2015

1:00 pm – 2:15 pm
JOSH GARRETT BAND

2:45 pm – 4:00 pm
MASON RUFFNER

4:30 pm – 5:45 pm
HONEY ISLAND SWAMP BAND

6:15 pm – 7:30 pm
SAMANTHA FISH Feat. Albert Castiglia

8:00 pm – 9:15 pm
RAW OYSTER CULT

9:45 pm – 11:00 pm
TAB BENOIT

SUNDAY 10/11/2015

1:00 – 2:00 pm
HEATH LEDET BAND

2:30 pm – 3:30 pm
LIGHTNING MALCOLM

4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
MIKE ZITO & THE WHEEL Feat. Albert Castiglia

5:20 pm – 6:30 pm
ROYAL SOUTHERN BROTHERHOOD

7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
CHUBBY CARRIER & the Bayou Swamp Band

8:30 pm – 9:45 PM
VOW ALLSTARS

My goal was to get there early enough to see Mason Ruffner. I will date myself. The last time I saw him was in October of 1988 and he was the opening band for Jimmy Page on the Outrider Tour. Ruffner had also done some work with Bob Dylan.

I made it in time for that..



Next up was the Honey Island Swamp Band. Which is another band I dig based out New Orleans.
Here is a taste of that band performing "Cast the First Stone"..

Then there was Samantha Fish. I have featured her on one of my Battle of the Bands contests before. My daughter is starting to play the guitar and is taking voice lessons. So, I like to show her what girls can do! Besides the Top 40 and Country stuff.

Here is Samantha Fish and my daughter...




Here she is with her video for "Lay it Down"..















Raw Oyster Cult was awesome as well! They are band featuring former members of The Radiators.

Tab Benoit, the host of the Festival finished off the evening with his band! I've been guilty of making a trip to New Orleans just to see him!

Here is a taste of his Medicine!

Albert Castiglia made guest appearances with just about everyone. He was great on guitar and really brought the best out of Tab. Here is a picture of him and Samantha..



I went on a hike with my daughter and had a BBQ lunch on Sunday so we missed the first act, I had seen him open up for the North Mississippi All Stars.

Here she is sad that she didn't see any Alligators..



The festival is trying to save the wetlands so I thought she should see some of the Wetlands.

So our day of music started out with Mike Zito and the Wheel..

Yours truly with Mike after his set..




Next up was Mike's old band The Royal Southern Brotherhood. Zito would join them for a few songs as well! Here is their latest single..

Here is a picture of the group with Mike Zito..



Besides music they had a petting zoo...



Face Painting..



Bouncy houses..



Here is a picture of the kids area at night..



Chubby Carrier provides some Zydeco Swamp Music!



I also caught Tab on the other stage performing with a Police Tribute band called The Fuzz..Tab Benoit on drums!



The festival ended with the Voice of the Wetlands All-Stars which included Anders Osborne..



Here is another picture of the group..



Here is a video of the group from January..making a good gumbo!

It was a great festival! Free no cover! Kind of like a family friendly jazzfest with no hassles. If you use my pictures please give me credit. If you want to learn more about the charity and festival, Voice of the Wetlands check out the link here.

I'll be back soon with a new post!