Tab Benoit has been around a while – he released his first album in 1993. He’s also a winner of multiple Blues Music Awards. But I Hear Thunder is his first new solo release since 2011’s Medicine, an album I thoroughly enjoyed when I picked up on it a few years later. Still, it may have been a damn long time between drinks, as the Governor of North Carolina said to the Governor of South Carolina, but Benoit pours a good measure.
People talk about artists being a ‘triple threat’, and Tab Benoit definitely deserves the tag. He’s a characterful singer, a great guitar player, and writes strong songs with thoughtful lyrics, as this album demonstrates with ease and charm.
‘I Hear Thunder’ itself gets things moving in a brooding fashion suggestive of an approaching storm, combining a riff that sounds like a slowed down second cousin of ‘Stormbringer’ with a groaning vocal that carries a hint of anxiety. There’s imaginative, patient soloing too, and a daring drop in even more restrained mode to add to the tension. And having laid down that solid marker, Benoit proceeds to cover plenty bases across the remaining nine tracks.
As a Louisiana native, he does a good job of preserving Tony Joe White’s swampy legacy. On ‘Watching The Gators Roll In’ he does it in uber-relaxed, smilingly funky fashion, snagging the ear with a coupla nifty little hooks and evocative lyrics that build on the title. Later on ‘Why, Why’ is slowish and contemplative, but also fuzzy, behind the beat, spare and scratchy, in a way that makes it more than the sum of its parts. And the closing ‘Bayou Man’ pulses with muscular energy as Benoit sings about rescuing a girl from the bayou elements. But it’s also a metaphor for a man confident he can give a woman what she wants: “What you need sugar, is for a bayou man like me to come along – and save you.” And it comes with a real cork-popping solo.
Benoit can take things right down too. ‘Still Gray’ is a superb, Americana-crossover slowie on which a man looking at a faded picture can still say “In my mind, I see the colours”, the plangent vocal evoking the sense of memory to good effect, accompanied by an undercurrent of buzzing guitar notes. There a lyrical, gentle guitar solo too, well suited to the patient delivery. Later on ‘Overdue’ is a slow blues, a ballad, a love song – take your pick – with a shimmering guitar intro, and a soulful vocal that’s beautifully sung.
Other songs develop different grooves. ‘The Ghost Of Gatemouth Brown’ is a sprightly take on a Bo Diddley vibe, with a quasi-shave an’ a haircut rhythm and long-time pal Anders Osborne being urged to take a first, bright’n’breezy solo, before Benoit picks up the baton in steelier, edgier fashion. ‘Inner Child’ is slowish and moody, with a rumbling, thorny riff, and impactful turnarounds rattling with drum rolls and lively, ringing chords, with a lift into the confident chorus: “What I know is what it takes to make you smile, just enough to see the glow of your inner child”.
‘Little Queenie’ is a stuttering, upbeat bop about a guy who everyone says is out of his league next to the local beauty, with sparky, witty soloing. Whether he keeps his girl is unclear, but you want him to stay lucky. The following ‘I’m A Write That Down’ is an offbeat and twitching promise to an irritating acquaintance that their “Your dirty little secret’s gonna get you yet”, over an intriguing, strolling riff and a nagging bass line, enhanced by a pair of spiky then bristling solos.
The thing about Tab Benoit is that he’s sui generis, hors catégorie, a real one-off. He can get bluesy, swampy, funky, and even country if he wants to, and he does it all effortlessly and with style. The Bayou Man is one cool cat.
I Hear Thunder is out now on Whiskey Bayou Records.
People talk about artists being a ‘triple threat’, and Tab Benoit definitely deserves the tag. He’s a characterful singer, a great guitar player, and writes strong songs with thoughtful lyrics, as this album demonstrates with ease and charm.
Tab Benoit, spotlight kid Pic by John Frank Photography |
As a Louisiana native, he does a good job of preserving Tony Joe White’s swampy legacy. On ‘Watching The Gators Roll In’ he does it in uber-relaxed, smilingly funky fashion, snagging the ear with a coupla nifty little hooks and evocative lyrics that build on the title. Later on ‘Why, Why’ is slowish and contemplative, but also fuzzy, behind the beat, spare and scratchy, in a way that makes it more than the sum of its parts. And the closing ‘Bayou Man’ pulses with muscular energy as Benoit sings about rescuing a girl from the bayou elements. But it’s also a metaphor for a man confident he can give a woman what she wants: “What you need sugar, is for a bayou man like me to come along – and save you.” And it comes with a real cork-popping solo.
Benoit can take things right down too. ‘Still Gray’ is a superb, Americana-crossover slowie on which a man looking at a faded picture can still say “In my mind, I see the colours”, the plangent vocal evoking the sense of memory to good effect, accompanied by an undercurrent of buzzing guitar notes. There a lyrical, gentle guitar solo too, well suited to the patient delivery. Later on ‘Overdue’ is a slow blues, a ballad, a love song – take your pick – with a shimmering guitar intro, and a soulful vocal that’s beautifully sung.
Other songs develop different grooves. ‘The Ghost Of Gatemouth Brown’ is a sprightly take on a Bo Diddley vibe, with a quasi-shave an’ a haircut rhythm and long-time pal Anders Osborne being urged to take a first, bright’n’breezy solo, before Benoit picks up the baton in steelier, edgier fashion. ‘Inner Child’ is slowish and moody, with a rumbling, thorny riff, and impactful turnarounds rattling with drum rolls and lively, ringing chords, with a lift into the confident chorus: “What I know is what it takes to make you smile, just enough to see the glow of your inner child”.
‘Little Queenie’ is a stuttering, upbeat bop about a guy who everyone says is out of his league next to the local beauty, with sparky, witty soloing. Whether he keeps his girl is unclear, but you want him to stay lucky. The following ‘I’m A Write That Down’ is an offbeat and twitching promise to an irritating acquaintance that their “Your dirty little secret’s gonna get you yet”, over an intriguing, strolling riff and a nagging bass line, enhanced by a pair of spiky then bristling solos.
The thing about Tab Benoit is that he’s sui generis, hors catégorie, a real one-off. He can get bluesy, swampy, funky, and even country if he wants to, and he does it all effortlessly and with style. The Bayou Man is one cool cat.
I Hear Thunder is out now on Whiskey Bayou Records.
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