Though New Orleans will be hopping with fall fests this weekend, the intersection of music and activism is never more evident than in Houma. The small southeastern Louisiana town is the home of bluesman Tab Benoit, whose passion for preserving Louisiana’s coastline was the impetus behind the Voice of The Wetlands Festival, now an almost decade-long annual event. VOW takes place this weekend, October 11- 13, and is one of the few benefit festivals organized solely by people born, raised and continuing to live in the bayou communities of southeast Louisiana.
Tab Benoit is the founder of the Voice of The Wetlands.
Launched in 2004 by blues guitar hero Benoit, the Voice of the Wetlands is a non-profit, volunteer-based organization “serving as the conscience of a struggle by America to save the history, culture and geography of a unique American place.” With the ongoing threat to the bayou and coastal communities of southern Louisiana through storm and river erosion and rising ocean waters, VOW mobilizes local musicians and other natives to represent the concerns of the area to bi-partisan officials in government, aiming to influence change in policy that drastically affects the people of Houma and surrounding areas.
Each year, VOW presents a three-day festival celebrating Houma’s rich cultural heritage where it is all too easy to quickly feel like a local yourself. This year’s fest opens Friday at 6 p.m. with Mia Borders and Louisiana’s “rockin’ fiddler” Waylon Thibodeaux, and closes with its longstanding opening night tradition – “Friday Night Guitar Fights.” The punk-infused Dash Rip Rock (see our podcast with the band’s founder, Bill Davis, in this week’s Weekly Beat) will warm up the crowd for what is known as one of the most intense guitar battles this side of the Mississippi. Axe mavericks like Anders Osborne, Tommy Malone, Papa Mali, VOW’s own Benoit and more are slated to duke it out for the final hour Friday night. If there’s a prize for the winner, that is unclear, but if there is, it likely involves jambalaya, Cajun roast pork and seafood.
Saturday’s flavor is everything from honky-tonk jazz and rhythm and blues to classic fais do do. Gal Holiday, Johnny Sansone, Devon Allman and Cyril Neville will all be on hand, as will one of VOW’s most popular features, The Wild Magnolias with Big Chief Bo Dollis Jr. and Big Chief Monk Boudreaux. Sunday opens with Cajun and zydeco from Michael Doucet, Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band. Then nearly all of the musicians from Friday and Saturday’s rosters will reappear Sunday with Benoit as the Voice of the Wetlands All-Stars in the ultimate bayou country jam to close out the weekend.
In case all this live music isn’t enough, this year VOW has added “The Red Dog Saloon” — a second stage where musician interviews and cultural education talks will take place. Of course, the VOW Cajun Food Experience will be back, offering chicken piquante, shrimp etouffée, Cajun sausage jambalaya, white beans, alligator sauce and just about anything fried in the South. Local artisans and members of the Houma Nation will also create a marketplace of arts and crafts exhibitions, while volunteers from the VOW organization will be on-hand with educational booths on coastal restoration.
The Voice of the Wetlands Festival runs Friday from 6 p.m. until 11 p.m., Saturday from 12 p.m. until 11 p.m. and Sunday from 12 p.m. until 9 p.m. at the Southdown Museum Grounds (1208 Museum Drive) in Houma, LA. The festival is free of charge and open to all ages. Proceeds from vendor sales benefit the VOW non-profit organization. More Info: www.voiceofthewetlands.org
