Article Contributed by Devious Planet
Published on 2026-09-30
On October 23, Acoustic Sounds will release Blues Masters Live, a double album of Tab Benoit’s October 19, 2002, performance at Blue Heaven Studios in Salina, Kansas, for the Fifth Annual Blues Masters at the Crossroads concert series.
Recorded when Benoit was 34 and already one of the most distinctive guitarists to emerge from Louisiana, the performance finds him sharing the stage with musicians who helped shape the music he grew up loving. The two-night “Louisiana Legends” edition brought together a dozen artists who helped define his home state’s sounds.
As a teenage blues guitar prodigy in the 1980s, Benoit had cut his teeth at Tabby’s Blues Box, bluesman Tabby Thomas’ legendary Baton Rouge roadhouse. By the 1990s, he was crisscrossing the country, turning heads with searing guitar work steeped in South Louisiana rhythms and sounds. At Blue Heaven, he found himself among musicians he had long respected. More than once that night, Benoit remembers thinking, “What am I doing here?” Chad Kassem knew exactly why he was there.
A Louisiana native and longtime champion of Benoit, Kassem founded Acoustic Sounds in Salina and built it into one of the world’s leading producers of audiophile vinyl. He booked Benoit for the 2002 Blues Masters series and made sure the performance was professionally recorded. Then the tapes sat in the vault.
The connection between the two men came full circle more than 20 years later when Acoustic Sounds manufactured the vinyl edition of Benoit’s 2024 album I Hear Thunder for his Whiskey Bayou Records. As Kassem prepared to open his archive of Blues Masters at the Crossroads recordings in 2026—Acoustic Sounds’ 40th-anniversary year—he knew which performance to release first: Tab Benoit’s.
Following an introduction by Louisiana guitarist Gabriel “Guitar Gable” Perrodin, a veteran of Excello Records’ 1950s house band, Benoit takes the stage with bassist Carl Dufrene Jr. and drummer Darryl White and immediately locks into the opening “Muddy Bottom Blues.”
At the time, Benoit was touring behind Wetlands, an album that underscored his connections to New Orleans rhythm & blues, southwest Louisiana swamp pop and zydeco. Five songs from that album appear here in live versions.
A curling guitar riff launches Professor Longhair’s “Her Mind Is Gone” before the trio moves into the deep blues of “Nice and Warm,” the title track from Benoit’s 1993 debut. The eight-minute performance showcases Benoit’s technique and unmistakable tone, with notes from his ’72 Telecaster Thinline hanging in the rafters of the former Gothic church. Before “Let Love Take Control,” Benoit recalls making Wetlands at legendary producer, pianist and songwriter Allen Toussaint’s Sea-Saint Studios in New Orleans.
The trio heads west to Lake Charles for zydeco titan Boozoo Chavis’ “Dog Hill,” with Benoit furiously strumming muted guitar strings to mimic a zydeco washboard.
One of the album’s most poignant moments arrives when Benoit invites another Louisiana legend from that evening back to the stage: Camille Bob, aka singing drummer Lil’ Bob. His band Lil’ Bob and the Lollipops’ 1966 single “I Got Loaded” became a South Louisiana touchstone, and Benoit seizes the rare opportunity to perform the song alongside the man who created it.
The second half of the set moves from the slow-burning “Louisiana Style” and western-tinged “Crawfishin’” into a joyous “Mardi Gras Medley” that weaves together “Jambalaya,” “Jockamo”/“Iko Iko” and a nod to “When the Saints Go Marching In.” “Cherry Tree Blues” gives Benoit another eight minutes to stretch out before the set barrels toward its finale, “Bayou Boogie.”
Pressed on high-quality vinyl to Acoustic Sounds’ exacting audiophile standards, Blues Masters Live offers the closest thing to stepping inside Blue Heaven Studios on that October night in 2002 and hearing Benoit and his band in the room.
Time gives the recording added resonance. Three musicians on the album—Guitar Gable, Lil’ Bob and Carl Dufrene Jr.—have since passed away, adding to its weight.
That night in Salina can never be recreated, and its moment is gone.
But on October 23, hear it at last.
Grammy-nominated Louisiana guitarist, singer and songwriter Tab Benoit blends fiery blues with the rich musical traditions of his home state. Since his 1992 debut, Nice and Warm, he has released more than a dozen albums and earned eight Blues Music Awards, including two B.B. King Entertainer of the Year honors. His soulful voice, distinctive guitar work and relentless touring have made him one of Louisiana’s leading blues ambassadors. Benoit also founded Voice of the Wetlands to raise awareness of coastal erosion and co-founded Whiskey Bayou Records with manager Rueben Williams to champion fellow artists.
