Tab Benoit (born November 17, 1967 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States… Read Full Bio ↴Tab Benoit (born November 17, 1967 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States) is a blues guitarist, musician and singer. He plays a style that is a combination of Swamp blues, Soul blues and Chicago blues. He plays Fender guitars and writes his own music compositions. Benoit graduated from Vandebilt Catholic High School in Houma, Louisiana in May, 1985. In 2003, he formed an organization promoting awareness of coastal wetlands preservation known as "Voice of the Wetlands."

A guitar player since his teenage years, he hung out at the Blues Box, a music club and cultural center in 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. He formed a trio in 1987 and began playing clubs in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. He began touring other parts of the south two years later and started touring more of the United States in 1991- and he continues to this day.

Benoit landed a recording contract with the 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, 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 guitarist and Telarc labelmate Jimmy Thackery as well as harpist Charlie Musselwhite and Double Trouble—the two-man rhythm section of bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton that backed Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Benoit, in 2003, released Sea Saint Sessions, 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's 2005 release is Fever for the Bayou,which also includes guest appearances by Cyril Neville (vocals and percussion) and Big Chief Monk Boudreaux (vocals).

An interview with Tab Benoit:
http://www.thecelebritycafe.com/interviews/tab_benoit.html

Mother Earth
Tab Benoit Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

You may holler at me all the time
You may never go my way
Mother Earth is life for you
'Coz there's a debt you got to pay

Don't care how great you are
Don't care what you were
When it all ends up

You got to go back to Mother Earth

You may own half a city
Even diamonds and pearls
You may buy an aeroplane
And fly all over this world

I don't care how great you are
Don't care what you were
When it all ends up
You got to go back to Mother Earth

You may play the race horses
You may own a horse track
You may have enough money
To buy anything you like

Don't care how great you are
I don't care what you were

When it all ends up
You got to go back to Mother Earth

Overall Meaning

"Mother Earth" by Tab Benoit is a song that emphasizes the inevitability of nature's power over human's desires and possessions. The opening lines "You may holler at me all the time" suggest the arrogance of humanity. We may feel like we can control everything, but "Mother Earth" has her own ways of bringing order in chaos. The singer highlights that no matter who we are, what we own, or how high we fly, we all owe a debt to nature since it's our source of life. Human beings have a significant impact on the environment, and it's our collective responsibility to protect it.

The repetitiveness of the line "Don't care how great you are/ Don't care what you were" emphasizes the song's central message that everything is temporary, including our possessions and power. The singer suggests that all the wealth and power are not enough to escape our fate to "go back to Mother Earth." The lyrics convey a sense of detachment from material things, which can be seen as a Buddhist approach to life, where all life is interconnected.

In conclusion, "Mother Earth" by Tab Benoit declares that humanity's arrogance and materialistic lifestyle are temporary and insignificant in the grand scheme of things. It admonishes us to be mindful of our impact on the environment and to take collective responsibility to preserve it.

Line by Line Meaning

You may holler at me all the time
You may constantly criticize and belittle me

You may never go my way
You may never agree with my perspective or opinions

Mother Earth is life for you
The planet Earth is essential for your survival

'Coz there's a debt you got to pay
Because there is a responsibility to preserve and protect the environment

Don't care how great you are
It doesn't matter how successful or powerful you may be

Don't care what you were
Your past achievements or status are insignificant

When it all ends up
In the end, when everything comes to a close

You got to go back to Mother Earth
You will return to the Earth, the source of all life

You may own half a city
You may possess a significant amount of property and resources

Even diamonds and pearls
You may have the most valuable and luxurious possessions

You may buy an aeroplane
You may have the means to acquire expensive modes of transportation