>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

Tab Benoit, winner of two 2002 Best of the Beat Awards presented by Offbeat Magazine, with special guest — blues guitarist Jimmy Thackery, formerly of the Assassins and Jimmy Thackery and the Drivers — will appear at Wildhorse Resort & Casino Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Wildhorse recommends advance purchase of the $5 tickets at the casino gift shop. To purchase by phone call 1-800-654-9453, ext. 1128.

Sometimes called the Green-Eyed Alligator, Benoit plays true, down-home Cajun flavored blues. He grew up in southern Louisiana, where he began his guitar-twanging career as a teenager. Nightly jams at Tabby's Blues Box, a ramshackle music club in Baton Rouge, not far from his hometown of Houma, led to Benoit assembling his own band of jamming friends.

He took the show on the road and now plays 200 to 250 shows a year. Benoit was the headliner at this year's Bronze, Blues and Brews in Joseph.

He has produced a half dozen CDs, including "Wetlands," which took last year's Best of the Beat Award for Best Blues Album by a Louisiana Artist. Other CDs include his first, "Nice and Warm," which sold 200,000 copies, "What I Live For," "Standing on the Bank," "Swampland Jam" and perhaps his strongest, released in 1999, "These Blues are All Mine."

According to Guitar Player magazine, "With tone as thick as gumbo and licks as fiery as a tablespoon of cayenne pepper, singer/guitarist Tab Benoit may be the hottest thing to come out of Louisiana since Chef Paul Prudhomme. Benoit's mellow Big Easy personality contradicts the tear-your-head-off intensity of his performance.

Thackery, who gives credit for his intense blues style to shows he attended with artists such as Buddy Guy, Jimi Hendrix and Otis Rush, has also played with blues legends like Muddy Waters, James Cotton and Luther Johnson.

According to CD Review magazine, "Jimmy Thackery has the tonal control, musical thought, expressive sincerity, velocity and discipline to rank near the top of the blues-rock heavyweight division."

This summer he released a CD, "True Stories," which also features drummer/bassist duo, Double Trouble, and harmonica legend Charlie Musselwhite.