Saturday 31 December 2011
Sighting a download of a recent concert by the Voice of the Wetlands All Stars featuring Tab Benoit, Cyril Neville, Anders Osborne and Big Chief Monk Boudreaux seemed like a fairly sure no-brainer, and it didn't take long before Hughesy was heading off in search of the album I'd noted in passing when it was released in 2005.
Founded by Tab Benoit, whose home town of Houma is right on the edge of the wetlands to the west of the Mississippi delta, in 2004, Voice of the Wetlands aims to promote awareness of the receding coastal wetlands of Louisiana and predates Hurricane Katrina though the events of August 2005 brought the issues into a focus that was all too clear.
With members born and raised in the Louisiana wetlands who continue to live there, the Foundation's activities cover a number of fronts, including an annual music festival, taking New Orleans musicians to perform at the National Conventions of both major political parties and supporting projects that aim to replenish the wetlands' vegetation.
The Voice of the Wetlands album appeared shortly after Katrina, though it was recorded eight months earlier, the result of an increasing awareness of the threats faced by an increasingly fragile ecosystem. That awareness meant Benoit had no difficulty assembling an all star cast, with vocal duties shared around Benoit, Anders Osborne, Dr. John, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux from the Wild Magnolias and Cyril Neville. With Benoit and Osborne on guitars, Dr John handling the keyboards, an ace rhythm section in the Meters' George Porter, Jr. and drummer Johnny Vidacovich, with tonal variations added by Cyril Neville's percussion, Waylon Thibodeaux on fiddle and Jumpin' Johnny Sansone on harmonica and accordion. Tasty.