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14
MY
ROUSES
EVERYDAY
MARCH | APRIL 2015
F
ew entertainers epitomize the South
Louisiana experience better than
Tab Benoit. A native of Terrebonne
Parish, Tab is an immensely talented
guitarist, singer/songwriter, and storyteller
who has twice been named The Blues
Music Awards B.B. King Entertainer of the
Year and was inducted into the Louisiana
Music Hall of Fame in 2010. But long
before he became famous for singing and
slinging his distinct brand of Delta blues all
over the United States, Tab spent countless
hours exploring and scavenging the pristine
cypress swamps with in which his family
called home. He’s experienced firsthand the
incredible bounty our marshlands have to
offer, yet has also witnessed the catastrophic,
heartbreaking destruction that saltwater
intrusion and our Mississippi River levee
system have wreaked upon Sportsman’s
Paradise, and has become one of the region’s
greatest advocates for coastal restoration.
I recently had the great pleasure to sit down
with Tab for a while where we discussed,
among many other subjects and not at all
surprisingly, his love for our beloved Cajun
and Creole cuisines.
Brad Gottsegen:
Was food a big part
of your experience growing up in South
Louisiana?
Tab Benoit:
I think food is a huge part
of life for everyone that grows up around
here. It’s all about family, and it’s a reason
to gather together. A lot of stuff we ate
when I was a kid, especially around my
grandparents’ house, was stuff we caught
and hunted, which was always cooked
with vegetables my Paw Paw grew in his
backyard. He was real proud of that garden,
and he always made us go work back there,
which wasn’t real fun. But as you got older,
you began to realize how much better that
food tasted because it came straight out of
the ground and there was a lot of love in it.
BRAD:
I know you loved to fish as a child
and still do. What would you usually go
fishing for?
TAB:
Well, in the brackish marsh around
my house south of Houma, we could catch
everything from saltwater fish like redfish,
speckled trout and flounder to freshwater
fish such as bass, sac-a-lait and perch. But
it really wasn’t about what was biting the
most — it was more about what we felt like
eating the most and how it was going to
be prepared. We’d wake up sometimes and
say to ourselves, “Man, I could really go for
some redfish courtbouillon today,” so we’d
go out and catch us some redfish! Or if we
wanted some fried speckled trout, we’d go
out and catch some trout. And depending
on the season, we’d always go trawling for
shrimp and catch crabs with a chicken neck
or a fish head from something we’d just
caught tied onto a string. We lived across
from a crawfish pond so we’d go rafting and
pick the traps. It didn’t seem like we had to
go to the store too much —maybe for some
butter, milk, and flour, but that was about
it. A lot of the food we ate came from our
surroundings.
BRAD:
What influence has food and
Louisiana-style cooking had on your
development as a musician?
TAB:
Well, you know,Cajun food takes a long
time to cook, so you gotta have something
Keeping
Tabs
on the
Wetlands
by
Brad Gottsegen +
photos by
Jerry Morn
the
Food & Music
issue