Tab Benoit - Legacy: The Best of Tab Benoit (2012)

In the 20 years since his 1992 debut album Nice & Warm, Louisiana guitarist Tab Benoit has molded his disparate influences into a unique sound that displays the artist's influences while taking the blues into exciting new directions. When one considers the impressive body of work that Benoit has quietly built over the past couple of decades - sixteen studio and live recordings, constant worldwide touring, his environmental advocacy, four Blues Music Awards, including the 2007 "B.B. King Entertainer of the Year" - the guitarist's status as one of the greats of contemporary blues music seems carved in stone.
In honor of a long and productive career that continues unabated, on April 3, 2012 Benoit's longtime label Telarc Records will release Legacy: The Best of Tab Benoit. The fourteen-song collection pulls from across the last 13 years of Benoit's storied career, including such fan favorites as "Night Train," "Shelter Me," and "Bayou Boogie." Legacy also features a number of Benoit's acclaimed collaborations with fellow bluesmen, including "I Put A Spell On You" with guitarist Kenny Neal; "Whiskey Store" and "Nice and Warm" with former Nighthawks guitarist Jimmy Thackery; and "The Blues Is Here To Stay" with New Orleans favorite son Cyril Neville, as well as performances with honky-tonk singer Billy Joe Shaver and harp player Jimmy Hall.
"Benoit is a true Louisiana resource, the product of a life steeped in music - blues, country, Cajun, rock and soul," states John Swenson, author of New Atlantis: Musicians Battle for the Survival of New Orleans, in the liner notes for Legacy. "Tab brings all these elements to bear in a style uniquely his own, a delivery built around one of the greatest voices of his generation and powered by an exciting guitar sound. Benoit stands out as a blues player because he never, ever overplays, making every note count the way greats like Albert King and Johnny Copeland could do it. Benoit is also a fine songwriter whose heart shines through his work and who conveys an earnest message in every story he tells."(Rev. Keith A. Gordon)