Tab Benoit - I Hear Thunder (2024)

Posted By: popsakov

Date: May 27, 2025

Tab Benoit is back. While he's rarely been absent from the road, it took 13 years for him to follow the globally acclaimed Medicine, produced and co-written with Anders Osborne. Benoit hasn't been stuck creatively; it took him that long to free himself from a horrible record deal. Justice Records issued his first five albums while his reputation spread internationally due to the blues guitarist and songwriter's innovative playing style. When the label folded in the late '90s, his contract and catalog transferred to Vanguard, then Telarc, then Concord, without his consent. He was unable to extricate himself from it, and simply refused to issue another album without adequate compensation.

That contract is finally in the rearview. Benoit formed his own Whiskey Bayou label, and re-teamed with Osborne for I Hear Thunder. Benoit produced and recorded it at his Houma, Louisiana swamp camp studio. The guitarists wrote all ten tracks together, and Osborne's guitar appears on every song. Benoit also employs his longtime rhythm section of bassist Corey Duplechin and drummer Terence Higgins. George Porter, Jr. handles bass duties on two tracks.

I Hear Thunder opens with the roiling title-track single. A simple hard rock blues, its punishing vamp governs the track as throbbing bass and thundering tom-toms support Benoit's empathetic singing and spooky guitar solo. If this were a different era, the cut would have been an FM radio staple. "The Ghost of Gatemouth Brown" is an homage to the Texas bluesman. Set to a modified version of Bo Diddley's signature "Who Do You Love" vamp, the interplay between guitarists is canny. Osborne's solo highlights the vamp while Benoit's bites in the instrument's upper register. It's answered by "Still Gray," a local Houma take on a country-waltz that is at once soulful, romantic, and drenched in blues. "Inner Child" is another hard-rocking blues that recalls the psychedelic power blues of Robin Trower, Mountain, and Cream. "Watching the Gators Roll In" is an old-school swamp shuffle with an unforgettable melody. The ballad "Overdue" is a showcase for Benoit's truly remarkable singing and vocal technique, which have only become more disciplined, emotionally expressive, and resonant over the years. "Why, Why" is a nocturnal NOLA-styled blues with killer fills from the guitarists and tasty snare rimshots. Porter's bass anchors both "Little Queenie," a good-time swamp rock blues and "I'm a Write That Down," with its funky R&B vamp. Set-closer "Bayou Man" is a hard blues guitar anthem seeded in a swamp funk setting. It's another perfect example of Benoit's vocals and lyrics selling the song. The two guitarists actively play foils for the rhythm section, who lay down an unshakeable pulse. I Hear Thunder is not only the musical peer of 2011's Medicine, its songwriting, intricate playing, and singing actually place it on a higher rung of the creative ladder.

~ Thom Jurek, All Music

Discogs

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Track List:

01. I Hear Thunder [3:41]
02. The Ghost of Gatemouth Brown [4:17]
03. Still Gray [5:15]
04. Inner Child [5:03]
05. Watching the Gators Roll In [4:56]
06. Overdue [5:45]
07. Why Why [4:23]
08. Little Queenie [4:07]
09. I'm A Write Dat Down [3:39]
10. Bayou Man [4:03]

XLD Log

X Lossless Decoder version 20250302 (157.2)

XLD extraction logfile from 2025-05-23 10:51:52 -0700

Tab Benoit / I Hear Thunder

Used drive : ASUS DRW-24B1ST j (revision 1.11)
Media type : Pressed CD

Ripper mode : XLD Secure Ripper
Disable audio cache : OK for the drive with a cache less than 1375KiB
Make use of C2 pointers : NO
Read offset correction : 6
Max retry count : 100
Gap status : Analyzed, Appended (except HTOA)

TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 00:00:00 | 03:40:62 | 0 | 16561
2 | 03:40:62 | 04:16:08 | 16562 | 35769
3 | 07:56:70 | 05:14:71 | 35770 | 59390
4 | 13:11:66 | 05:02:17 | 59391 | 82057
5 | 18:14:08 | 04:55:42 | 82058 | 104224
6 | 23:09:50 | 05:44:48 | 104225 | 130072
7 | 28:54:23 | 04:22:11 | 130073 | 149733
8 | 33:16:34 | 04:06:54 | 149734 | 168237
9 | 37:23:13 | 03:38:43 | 168238 | 184630
10 | 41:01:56 | 04:02:52 | 184631 | 202832

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Track 01 : OK (v2, confidence 4/4)
Track 02 : OK (v2, confidence 4/4)
Track 03 : OK (v2, confidence 4/4)
Track 04 : OK (v2, confidence 4/4)
Track 05 : OK (v2, confidence 4/4)
Track 06 : OK (v2, confidence 4/4)
Track 07 : OK (v2, confidence 4/4)
Track 08 : OK (v2, confidence 4/4)
Track 09 : OK (v2, confidence 4/4)
Track 10 : OK (v2, confidence 4/4)
->All tracks accurately ripped.

All Tracks
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Peak : 0.969116
Statistics
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Jitter error (maybe fixed) : 0
Retry sector count : 0
Damaged sector count : 0

Track 01
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Pre-gap length : 00:02:00

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No errors occurred

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