The Voice of the Bayou

Tab Benoit speaks out on music, Katrina and the fleecing of Louisiana.

(page 1 of 2)

Tab Benoit is a passionate guy, both about his music and his home state. As founder of Voice of the Wetlands, Tab has been championing the cause of Cajun country for years—how the damming of the Mississippi is causing the Gulf of Mexico to eat an acre of land an hour, and how someday there may not be a bayou. In fact, it’s the subject of Hurricane on the Bayou, Greg MacGillivray’s 2006 film in which Tab plays a prominent role. And that was before Hurricane Katrina hit. (He’ll also appear in the star-studded New Orleans Story, due out later this year.) On May 12 you’ll hear him at his craft at the C-Street Jam. We caught up with Tab.

So how does a guy first get turned on to the blues?
My dad had some record collections, and when I heard it it kinda perked my ear. Ray Charles, B.B. King, James Brown, that kinda stuff made me listen a little deeper. I was just trying to [emulate] this stuff and someone told me, ‘It’s called the blues.’

What instruments do you play?
I started on drums. I ended up moving to guitar when the drums got too loud in the house, when I was nine or 10. I didn’t have dreams of being a guitar player, I had rather play drums when I was a kid. Eventually I learned guitar was the most versatile instrument…and now look at me!

What are you most proud of?
When you’re a young guy and you’ve got some talent, people start to take notice of that. There’s a lot of offers that fly around, a lot of people give you all these crazy ideas about what you should do. A lot of money flies in front of your face and it’s easy to grab it. But if someone’s going to give you money, it’s not free. It means you have to give up something you might be thinking of as far as your artwork.

You were nominated for a Grammy this year. How was that?
I did get to go. I was already in California, so it was perfect. Probably the coolest thing was standing there and meeting Al Jarreau and Tony Bennett walks up. I never thought that would have happened!

Tell me about Hurricane on the Bayou. How involved were you with that?
I was very involved. A lot of the story is my story. I founded [my organization] Voice of the Wetlands in 2003. That’s how I got involved in the movie. This was a film that was made before Katrina about what could happen if something like Katrina hit. And during editing Katrina did happen. Then we came back and finished it. It’s really crazy that it happened at the same time.
So you all predicted the aftermath of Katrina? It didn’t take Nostradamus to predict it. It’s something we’ve known was going to happen. New Orleans doesn’t have adequate levees, the pumps are not up to par and can only handle an inch an hour anyway. We’ve lost much of the marsh that’s protecting the levees. We dodged a bullet so many times. I had gone to a FEMA meeting years before the storm. There was a plan that the feds had come up with…none of this was a mystery to them either. But it came off on TV like it was a mystery to them.