Tab Benoit’s Six Strings Down Tour – Lincoln Theater, Raleigh, NC, Dec. 12, 2014

For musicians, the road can be a lonely place. Tab Benoit has found a cure. When he gets lonely, he invites a few friends along. But there are no hangers-on in his entourage. Benoit’s buddies are players, in every sense of the word. For his latest, the Six Strings Down tour, he’s sharing the stage with Tommy Castro. Samantha Fish is on the bill as well as a local artist opening the show in each venue.

Tonight’s opener at Raleigh, NC’s venerable Lincoln Theater, is Mel Melton, a local who adopted Louisiana culture in ’69. He moved to Lafayette and hooked up with slide guitarist Sonny Landreth, played with Clifton Chenier, and later started a band, Bayou Rhythm, with Sonny and Clifton’s son C.J. He and Landreth also co-wrote the song “Congo Square,” recorded by John Mayall and the Neville Brothers. Melton also became a chef, specializing in Cajun and Creole cooking, winning the Grand Prize at the Rolls Royce Krug Champagne Invitational Chef Competition in ’86.

Melton whomped up a big stockpot of gumbo for the crowd before the show and it was almost gone by the time he hit the stage with his band, the Wicked Mojos. Melton on harp, aided by Max Drake’s guitar, delivered a lively set of zydeco and blues. His guitar clanging like a dinner bell, Drake galloped around Melton, who was channeling Clifton Chenier, hollering “yippie-yi-yo-ki-yay” like a zydeco cowboy. Melton tried to blast the reeds out of his harp as Drake slid around him on a wiggly version of “Hot Tamale Baby.”

Long, tall, and dangerous, Samantha Fish has the face of an angel and the body of a voluptuous she-devil. Tottering around on a pair of black stilettos, she pounded out chunky rock treatments on songs like her own “Go To Hell” and Howling Wolf’s “Who’s Been Talkin’,” both from her latest, Black Wind Howlin’. But as rock rooted as her guitar playing is, everything the Kansas City native’s voice touches gets rural, stirring a country flavor into the pounding rock backing.

She got up into hill country with the aid of her oil can guitar, switching to acoustic for some real country blues on Charlie Patton’s “Jim Lee Blues,” before squeezing out a slow, backwoodsy, RFD version of the Stones “Dead Flowers.” But even though the crowd leaned toward the middle age demographic, it was her thudding rock numbers that got the biggest response, and she had plenty of ’em in reserve, leaving the crowd with their ears ringing, shouting for more.

Tab Benoit came out roaring on “Fever For The Bayou,” exposing his zydeco roots firmly entrenched in the muddy waters that surround his Houma, Louisiana birthplace. Castro was situated so far to the left side of the stage that he was hard to see from most of the house unless he came out on the lip of the stage, but he still made his presence known, dueling with Benoit in spirited exchanges on vocals and guitar throughout the show. The two teamed up on a thundering, big foot stomping version of “Leavin’ Trunk” that was as fonky as Taj Mahal’s takes on it, the two flinging licks back and forth at each other, drummer Terence Higgins pounding so hard you could feel the balcony floor shaking.

Benoit’s take on “I Put A Spell On You” wasn’t quite as raw as Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ original, but was still plenty low down and nasty. Castro laid down some low down nasty as well on the swampy title cut from his last release, The Devil You Know, a hill country-flavored anthem that had Benoit and Castro meeting head to head at center stage slinging stinging licks back and forth. The two went at it hard on “Hot Tamale Baby,” Higgins’ tribal toms sprinkled with a heaping handful of Cajun spice.

Bassist Corey Duplechin was so happy with his role in the proceedings that he couldn’t stop bouncing and grinning throughout the set while providing a plethora of funky underpinnings to the evening’s offerings.

Castro goes off the Zydeco /blues format for a rowdy version of “Keep On Smilin’,”also included on The Devil You Know, that’s as much fun to listen to as Wet Willie’s original, Castro not only hitting Jimmy Hall’s high notes perfectly but also tearing up the joint with his guitar work.

Benoit took over with “Bring Me My Medicine,” a Native American /chant/drone that has the crowd head banging like metalheads with Castro as the Shaman working his guitar medicine on the masses. Benoit breaks a string, biting it off and spitting it out without missing a beat.

The slide-fueled fonk fest “When I Cross the Mississippi,” featured Benoit as a collaborator on vocals and guitar from Castro’s Devil release. Castro told  the crowd that Benoit came in the studio never having heard the song and cut it in 45 minutes. “I was hongry,” Benoit said, in his defense, claiming that his appetite guides his career. “Everywhere you see me, I’m always hongry.”

He fed the crowd some more Fish, having the guitarist join him and Castro for some more thundering blues-rock with Fish and Castro squaring off in a friendly guitar duel.

For an encore, Benoit came back out on drums, his first instrument, for more thundering with Fish and Castro. Before he left the stage, Benoit attempted to tell the audience where he’d be appearing next, but couldn’t get the facts straight. “Just go to my website,” he said, laughing. “That’s how I know. I’m going if that ‘s what it says. And if you go there too, even if it’s wrong, we’ll still have a good time.”

Text and photos  by Grant Britt