Tab Benoit
Best of The Bayou Blues
Vanguard - 79802
available on CD Universe
This disc is a compilation of the 5 Vanguard discs Tab has released; and as a collection shows that it has had a considerable amount of thought and effort put into it. With any Best of disc there are going to be arguments as why this and not that cut, you will have it here too, but overall it is an excellent cross section of the blues work he has done for Vanguard. It shows his range from the straightaway blues that he learned from his mentor Albert Collins, to the dark and mystic mixture that has a 'swampiness.' It takes the blues and then blends the bayous that he grew up around and the Creole and Zydeco music that inhabits those environs he grew up in, and still inhabits. It is a first-rate mix of covers (ie Clifton Chenier’s “Hot Tamale Baby”) and songs he wrote (ie “These Blues Are All Mine”), and at just shy of 78
minutes it is a fantastic value. The sound quality is first rate here. It does show off the adroit guitar playing for which he has become known and the singing voice which is growing stronger with each outing.