tab benoit

I've got to thank Robbie for this one. I think he might have seen Tab at the New Orleans Jazz Festival. Tab's from New Orleans, just another local, as he joked to us on Sunday night. Once again, kudos to Tupelo Music Hall for doing it right one more time.

Tab was in top form - it was like the young Bob Dylan, who would regale his audience with tales between songs. Stories about Buddy Guy ("isn't it cool that he's got two names that mean the same thing - hey, buddy, hey, guy") and courvoisier, crappy fish, and moose horns. We got it all. I don't suppose we came for the stories, but they went down so well, followed by huge swaths of blues guitar. It was a great night of music.

Three member band - Corey Duplechin on bass, Doug Gay on drums, and Tab Benoit on three different guitars. I think all of them were Fender Stratocasters. Maybe a thinline. But I'm out of my league here. All I know is they produced some great bayou blues all night long. All that was missing was a harp. The first song in was an RnB number, and it seemed like these guys were picking up where James Hunter left off a couple of weeks ago in the same room, taking it a few notches higher.

His guitar reminds me of Albert King and his voice is like Otis Redding. Or at least it was tonight. He even sang "These Arms of Mine," and it was a bit uncanny really. That was well into the set, though. The table had been well set.

Before tonight, I didn't know a thing about Tab Benoit except for a one night crash course on YouTube last week. Fat lot of good it did me ... when he called out for requests, do you think I could remember the one song I'd had on repeat - it had New Orleans or Louisiana in the title, but I drew a blank, and basically hoped he'd sing it anyways, without any prompts from me. (No such luck.)

He's got real style on the guitar - very tasty - no gimmicks, just straight away. Born and bred, his songs are set deep in the bayou - I was going to say very earthy, but I guess the term in Cajun country is "swampy." He was definitely swampy. "Sac au Lait Fishing" and "We Make A Good Gumbo" - how more swampy can you get? He traveled up through the delta and beyond in "The Blues Is Here To Stay," where he namechecks just about everybody from Elmore James and Bobby Blue Bland to Stevie Ray and T Bone Walker. In the end, it was just straight blues all night long.

One thing is sure, I'll be timing my visit to New Orleans when Tab Benoit is there.

The song I couldn't remember? "New Orleans Ladies," just for the ladies.

james hunter

Kudos to the folks at Tupelo Music Hall for booking James Hunter on Saturday night. There was a time back in 2006 when I saw a lot of him - when he was touring People Gonna Talk. That summer I was going to more James Hunter shows than Van Morrison shows. The energy coming from the stage was simply immense. And unless absolutely forbidden by law, I was up there dancing from the first note every night. I like my R'n'B Sam Cooke style.

I knew all that going in on Saturday night and intentionally bought general admission tickets, which would put me firm up against the back wall with an open aisle in front of me. But when Celeste and I got there, it turned out they'd upgraded us to seats in the second to last row. It was good for the opening act, Jesse Dee, who hails from south of Boston. He put on a good set, crafting these stories in definitely what was a unique voice. But he was a sit-down kind of guy.

As soon as James came on - with a band consisting of a B3, an upright bass, James on guitar, and a tenor and a baritone sax (yum) - and started in on "She's Got A Way," I was up and at 'em, but did have the courtesy to exit my seat and go stand at the back of the room. (Thanks, to Dave, who offered me a barstool during my dancing intermissions.)

You don't want to blow the roof off in a place like the Tupelo - it's a small room - but even so, it was a bit of a toned-down affair. Perhaps more from necessity than anything else - James' voice was this side of shot, and really, the only songs he sounded comfortable on were on the slower, more poppy tunes he referred to as "new songs." I think one was called "Your Love Is Like A Gold Mine" and another "Minute By Minute." A couple of others that might have been called "One More" Time" and "I'm Going Nowhere" and the requisite 12-bar blues, "Think." And if there's going to be a hit single, it'll be "One Way Love." Add a handful of songs from People Gonna Talk and another handful from The Hard Way and throw in the "5" Royales' "Baby Don't Do It" and you've got yourself a whole lot of brass. Altogether a solid night of good-time rhythm and blues. To start the encore, the band got to stretch it out in a nice long jazz instrumental, which featured the two brass at the end blowing those familiar notes from "All Through Crying," as James hustled up the aisle toward the stage. He closed with "Talking 'Bout My Love," and I swear on my mother's grave, I am certain someone threw a pair of pink panties at James at the end of the show. Those R'n'B singers will get them every time.

That's a picture I got taken with James in 2008, when Dan H and I caught him out back of the Casino Ballroom on his smoke break.

I was checking out James' website, and I'll leave you with a goodie ... if you go to the Music page, you'll get a list of his three albums, and beneath that, Bonus Tracks. That's the one to click on. It's an eclectic mix of James at his, well, most eclectic.

ronnie earl & the broadcasters

So guess where I was this Saturday night? Back at the Tupelo Music Hall, to see Ronnie Earl & The Broadcasters this time. And was I ever in for a treat.

I had a seat in the back again, just like for John Sebastian - where there is a row of barstools along the back wall, on either side of the concession stand, that serves as General Admission. In such a small room, if you're not in the first six rows (basically the front half), you might as well be in the back on barstools, a head taller than all the rest. The seat might be hard, but the view is excellent at 13 rows back.

[This picture is hanging on the wall in the rotunda where artists sell their wares and patrons line up to use the facilities]

I fixed the seat problem by folding my overcoat in half and then in quarters, which was excellent use of coat - once I got up there. You should have seen me hoisting myself off the ground backward and trying to land on top of the coat - it was like trying to do the high jump.

Anyways, I'm sitting on my perch, with loads of time to spare - it's 7:30 and the show's not set to go for another half hour. I get my camera out and take a few shots, to see if I've got the right setting figured out. It turns out I don't, so it's amateur photo night again.

The music coming over the speakers is all good blues; I recognize I'll Take Care of You, which always reminds me of James Brown and It's A Man's, Man's, Man's World because of Van, but this must be Bobby Bland singing. I didn't look where the speakers are, but they're obviously not near me, because as the hall starts to fill up, people noise drowns out the music. But it's fun to people watch, and the first thing I notice is it's not the younger generation spending their doubloons and driving to Londonderry to see their favorite guitar hero. No, this is your more mature crowd - the kind that needs a soft cushion under her behind. I'm neither the youngest or the oldest, but there is probably not much more than 10 years' difference among the lot of us.

And with nothing else to do, my mind wanders to the first time I saw Ronnie Earl. Dennis and I went to see him at the House of Blues, back when it was still in Cambridge, at least 10 years ago. This must have been Dennis's idea, because I'd never heard of him. I didn't follow him after that, but for that one night, I can't tell you just how perfect it was. All night long, all he did was play the guitar, and he had me under his spell. So cool, so smooth, a real master of the guitar.

At one point, I kid you not, I was standing there - it was a standing room only gig - swaying to the music, eyes closed, just so into the blues...and at some point, I opened my eyes and there was Ronnie standing right in front of me, wailing away on the guitar. I thought for a second that I must have gravitated to the stage; then I thought, no. he's gravitated to me. It was certainly a moment in time. And it sets the stage for tonight.

And if you've only got the time to listen to one Ronnie Earl song today, click on him playing some soft, slow blues - it's from a recent show - he's wearing the same outfit, same players in the band, and it's one of the songs he played last night (it might be "Miracle" but don't quote me). In the band, there's Jim Mouradian on bass, Lorne Entress on drums, and Dave Limina on piano, playing a Yamaha. When it wasn't Ronnie's turn, it was Dave's, and, boy, he could stomp it out. There was one song, I think this is the one he said was a Bessie Smith tune, where Dave and Ronnie were mixing it up some - a little piano-guitar jam, that was a real pleasure to listen to.

I didn't recognize one song all night - there must have been a good smattering of covers, because every once in a while he'd say, "Here's one of ours"and I wouldn't recognize that one either. For me it was strictly 90 minutes of blues uninteruptus, and apparently that's all I need. There were a couple of times I had to close my eyes and get in between the spaces of the music, but no luck this time in opening my eyes to see Ronnie Earl's nose hairs - the guitar cord doesn't make it this far back in the room.

He's out of Boston, and I see on his website that his upcoming shows are all in New England.I suspect he's a local wonder. I see he's a W.C. Handy Award winner, and that comes as no surprise - he plays with such soul, and he's got such good tone. Talking about W.C. Handy Award winners, last week, just by sheer luck, I got to see T.J. Wheeler for a short set at Strange Brew up in Manchester. It could be that every Sunday night they have a blues jam, but I think this was a special treat to have T.J. Wheeler on hand. I'm not sure he gets out to play gigs much; it looks like he's more into music education in the schools, but it was a delight to listen to him play guitar for five or six songs, much of it New Orleans - some Louis Armstrong, Zydeco, that Dr. John feel.