Concert Schedule

Sights & Sounds

Backstage Pass

Sponsors

Bluzapalooza

The Blues Music Links Page

Where To Stay On St John

Submissions

Contact Us

Additional St. John Music Events

Steve Simon & The Jazz Islanders

Steve Simon Presents
the 6th annual

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19 THROUGH SUNDAY, MARCH 23, 2008
THE MAIN CONCERT - SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 2008
CORAL BAY BALL FIELD - 7:00 PM

STARRING

ALSO FEATURING
CHUBBY CARRIER & THE BAYOU SWAMP BAND
WAYLON THIBODEAUX & SEAN CARNEY

Tab Benoit is a Cajun man who’s definitely got the blues. Born November 17, 1967, he grew up in Houma, Louisiana. A guitar player since his teenage years, he hung out at the Blues Box, a ramshackle music club and cultural center in nearby Baton Rouge run by guitarist Tabby Thomas. Playing guitar alongside Thomas, Raful Neal, Henry Gray and other high-profile regulars at the club, Benoit learned the blues first-hand from a faculty of living blues legends.

The nightly impromptu gigs were enough to inspire Benoit to assemble his own band—a stripped down bass-and-drums unit propelled by his solid guitar skills and leathery, Cajun-spiced vocal attack. He took his show on the road in the early ‘90s and hasn’t stopped since.

Benoit landed a recording contract with the tiny, Texas-based Justice Records and released a series of well-received recordings, beginning in 1992 with Nice and Warm, an album that prompted comparisons to blues guitar heavyweights like Albert King, Albert Collins and even Jimi Hendrix. Despite the hype, Benoit has done his best over the years to maintain a commitment to his Cajun roots—a goal that often eluded him when past producers and promoters tried to turn him and his recordings in a rock direction, often against his better instincts. These Blues Are All Mine, released on Vanguard in 1999 after Justice folded, marked a return to the rootsy sound that he’d been steered away from for several years.

That same year, he appeared on Homesick for the Road, a collaborative album on the Telarc label with fellow guitarists Kenny Neal and Debbie Davies. Homesick not only served as a showcase for three relatively young but clearly rising stars in the blues constellation, but also launched Benoit’s relationship with Telarc that came to fruition in 2002 with the release of Wetlands—arguably the most authentically Cajun installment in his entire ten-year discography.

On Wetlands, Benoit mixes original material like the autobiographical “When a Cajun Man Gets the Blues” and the driving “Fast and Free” with little-known classics like Li’l Bob & the Lollipops’ “I Got Loaded,” Professor Longhair’s “Her Mind Is Gone” and Otis Redding’s timeless “These Arms of Mine” (Tab’s vocal style has long been influenced by Redding).

Later in 2002, Benoit released Whiskey Store, a collaborative recording with fellow axemaster and Telarc labelmate Jimmy Thackery. Also along for the ride on Whiskey Store are harpist Charlie Musselwhite and Double Trouble—the two-man rhythm section of bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton that backed Stevie Ray Vaughn on his brief but luminous blues career.

After a prolific first year with Telarc, Benoit continued to explore the bayou backbeat in 2003 with the June release of Sea Saint Sessions, a collection of gritty, cajun-flavored tracks recorded at Big Easy Recording Studio (better known among musicians in the region as Sea Saint Studio) in New Orleans. In addition to Benoit and his regular crew—bassist Carl Dufrene and drummer Darryl White—Sea Saint Sessions includes numerous guest appearances by Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, Cyril Neville, Brian Stoltz and George Porter.

That same year, Benoit and Thackery took their dueling guitar show on the road and recorded a March 2003 performance at the Unity Centre for Performing Arts in Unity, Maine. The result was Whiskey Store Live, a high-energy guitar fest released in February 2004.

Benoit returned in 2005 with Fever for the Bayou, a straightahed Louisiana blues recording that seamlessly merges his own songcraft with that of Elmore James, Buddy Guy and other masters. Fever for the Bayou also includes guest appearances by Cyril Neville (vocals and percussion) and Big Chief Monk Boudreaux (vocals).

Benoit continues to dig the roots in 2006 with the April release of Brother to the Blues, a recording that encompasses not only his trademark cajun blues but also traditional country and vintage R&B. Joining him on the project are members of the cult blues/R&B/rock combo Louisiaina LeRoux, veteran country songwriter Billy Joe Shaver, Americana pioneer Jim Lauderdale and cajun fiddler Waylon Thibodeaux.

Tab Benoit is a living Blues icon………

CHUBBY CARRIER & THE BAYOU SWAMP BAND

Chubby Carrier is undeniably "The World's Premier Zydeco Showman." Born on July 1, 1967 in Churchpoint, Louisiana, Chubby is the third generation of Zydeco artists with such famous relatives as Roy Carrier (father), Warren Carrier (grandfather), and cousins Bebe and Calvin Carrier who are also considered legends in Zydeco history.

Chubby began his musical career at the age of 12 by playing drums with his father's band. He began playing the accordian at the age of 15. By age 17, Chubby had begun to play with Terrance Siemien and toured the world for 2 1/2 years, before forming his own band in 1989.

Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band have recorded five CDs over the past ten years of Chubby's professional career. His band has traveled all over the world, performing to audiences in all parts of the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, Canada. North Africa and Europe. Chubby and the band travel 150-175 days a year, taking his act to big festivals such as the New Orleans Jazz Fest, the Chicago Blues Fest. Summerfest (Milwaukee), Memphis in May, and several festivals in Europe. Chubby has also done guest appearances on recordings for Tab Benoit, 6Was9, and Jimmy Thackery. Ann Wilson of the group Heart encourages Chubby to "continue the great sound that you have. This sound will take you places."

One word to describe the swampdelic sounds of Chubby Carrier and Bayou Swamp Band? Fun. Pure Louisiana Zydeco fun with a hot sauce chaser. Anybody who has doubts about the accordion as an instrument will be swayed the right way with Carrier's passion and fire on the instrument.

Chubby Carrier started out as twinkle in Roy Carrier's eye (Roy looks more like Chubby's older brother than his dad). The Carriers are one of the great musical families in Louisiana. There's Poppa Roy, Chubby, Chubby's brother Troy (AKA Dikki Du and The Zydeco Krewe), Roy's nephew Dwight Carrier and The Zydeco Ro Dogs. There's also Chubby's Aunt Laura Maria Doolittle (AKA Zydeco-T) who plays with Mojo and the Bayou Gypsies. Now if we can organize a basketball tournament between the Carriers, the Neals and the Nevilles to settle it once and for all. (Just kidding). A documentary about the family has been filmed (Not kidding) and will hopefully be shown at a theatre near you (Or look for in on DVD if you movie houses are documentary-challenged).

There's traditional roots in Chubby's Zydeco, but expands the sound for all ages. Live and in studio he's taken songs like B.B. King's "Rock Me Baby," Billy Preston's "Will It Go Round in Circles," The Who's "Squeeze Box", War's "Cisco Kid" and the Grateful Dead's "Fire On The Mountain" and dragged them through the swamp with beautiful results. It's adding Louisiana spice to popular tunes that help Carrier build the bridge between Zydeco and the rest of the world. Mardi Gras can happen 365 days a year and you don't have to flash anything to enjoy the band (Unless you REALLY want to).

Chubby Carrier and The Bayou Swamp Band are one of the most energetic groups around. An evening or an afternoon with these guys will result in an uncontrollable need to hear them again and again and again.

In the post-Katrina world there has been a newfound awareness of the music of Louisiana. It's awareness that shouldn't be paid to these artists out of pity over what happened. It should be paid because the music of Louisiana is one big stewpot of many flavors and it's really damn tasty. It was tasty before Katrina and it's still tasty now. Chubby Carrier and The Bayou Swamp Band is the musical part in the stewpot where the gumbo meets the rice and you want to sop it up with some French bread. Prepare to be Funkified, Zydecofied and the pleasant victim of a Chubby party.

WAYLON THIBODEAUX

Waylon Thibodeaux is a young Cajun with an innate musical talent that can be seen in the performance of his Louisiana, Cajun and Zydeco music. His style of high-energy, toe-tapping music has been thrilling audiences all over the world for many years.

Many of Cajun music's best known performers are from the rural prairies of southwest Louisiana. Cajun recording artist Waylon Thibodeaux, dubbed "Louisiana's Rockin' Fiddler," is a native of the Bayou Country just a few miles southwest of New Orleans. Born and raised in Houma, Louisiana, he speaks French and English. He began playing music at the age of 8 and has been performing professionally since he was 13 years old. In 1984, at the age of 16, he was named Louisiana's State Fiddle Champion. That same year he accompanied the Dusenberry Family Singers on a tour of France as their lead fiddler. He plays not only the fiddle but also bass, guitar, triangle, scrubboard, and drums.

He regularly entertains capacity crowds in New Orleans' famous Bourbon Street clubs as well as at festivals and dances. He says of his music, "It's a mixture--it's Cajun, but not too traditional, it's Zydeco with a pinch of New Orleans sound, a small pinch of South Louisiana swamp pop, and a little rock-and-roll, that's sure to get you on your feet and dancing."