Tab Benoit in Denver

Growing with my intolerance for this climate is my nostalgia for home. Especially at this time of the year. . . Mardi Gras. As luck would have it, a Houma, LA native Blues artist was playing at a small nightclub in Denver this weekend. I have to be in a particular mood to enjoy Blues music, but when I am, I listen to the Best of the Bayou Blues CD by Tab Benoit. I was pretty excited that he would be playing only an hour away just a few days before Mardi Gras.





I convinced a few friends to partake in a Louisiana-infused evening. Our group dropped down by two people because of illness (hope you're feeling better Jen!), but me, Paul & Karla had a great night. We started off the southern experience by having some oysters, gumbo, fish and other seafood at Landry's Seafood House for dinner. From there we went to Herman's Hideaway to hear Tab play. I didn't know how well "swamp blues" would be received in Colorado, but it turns out the show was sold out (thank goodness we submitted to the greed of Ticketmaster and purchased our $15 tickets for $22.50 online ahead of time). I can only hope that Tab and his band get some of those extra fees. I can't tell you how great it was to hear some down-home, familiar music way up here in the Rockie Mountains. I have to admit, I got a little misty-eyed when he sang the song When a Cajun man gets the blues in which the lyrics mention places like Grand Isle and Theriot.


We spent the night in Denver, but when I got back to the Springs it was a relatively warm (50s) and sunny day, so I took my Harley out for a spin with Suzanne & David. I had to chuckle to myself when I thought about what I must've looked like cruising down the highway this afternoon singing Jambalaya, crawfish-pie, file gumbo with my feet across the pegs tapping away the tune!

Although Tab Benoit has an organization, Voice of the Wetlands, dedicated to the coastal erosion plight of South Louisiana, he gave the issue only a brief, but heart-felt plug towards the end of the performance. I encourage everyone to visit one or two websites to educate yourself about the 25-35 square miles of wetlands that are lost every year to coastal erosion (not counting what's lost to hurricanes). This site has a map that shows how much land has been lost just from 1932 to 1990 (it's a 5 MB pdf file). Once you peruse these sites, you'll see that coastal erosion is an issue for the whole U.S., not just for Louisiana. Every day that goes by, the Gulf Coast is shrinking.