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MUSIC IS ART ANNOUNCES
5^th ANNUAL BIG EASY IN BUFFALO MARDI GRAS JAM
Tab Benoit’s Swampland Jam to headline February 17 show at The Tralf
                        CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS - Doors open at 7pm

Music is Art announced the 5^th Annual Mardi Gras Jam, part of The Big Easy in Buffalo music education and concert series.  Headlining the February 17, 2012 concert will be Tab Benoit’s Swampland Jam featuring Cyril Neville, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux and Waylon Thibodeaux.  The concert will take place at The Tralf Music Hall in Buffalo.  Tickets are $25 in advance and $28 at the door, are available at www.ticketmaster.com or at 716-852-2860, and are on sale now.  All proceeds benefit Music is Art, a not for profit cultural organization founded by Buffalo native and Goo Goo Dolls bassist Robby Takac.

Also appearing be “New Orleans’ Premier Washboard-Sousaphone-Guitar Trio” The Tin Men, Buffalo’s country-rock-honkey tonk band The Steam Donkeys, and the winner of the student battle of the bands, the Brass Monkeez.  “The mission of the series is to bring some of the best musicians from Louisiana to Buffalo so our community and local students get a chance to experience this unique and important culture,” Music is Art Executive Director Sarah Ruszczyk explained.

From southern Louisiana, Tab Benoit fuses electric blues guitar with a Cajun sound, and is an environmental activist through “Voice of the Wetlands”.  He’s joined by Cyril Neville of the world-famous Neville Brothers, Mardi Gras Indian Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, and Cajun fiddler Waylon Thibodeaux to make up the Swampland Jam.  Openers The Tin Men play everything from trad jazz to Motown to hard rock - and they do it on washboard, sousaphone and guitar.  “Over the past five years we’ve brought to Buffalo an incredible array of musical styles to represent the breadth and depth of New Orleans music,” said Big Easy in Buffalo founder Tod A. Kniazuk.  “This year we’re proud to show some aspects of that culture for the first time such as the Mardi Gras Indians and the swamp pop sound, and show that ‘only in New Orleans’ sound of The Tin Men.”  

Prior to their public performance all the New Orleans artists will work with local students, including the winners of the Music is Art Big Easy in Buffalo student battle of the bands.  “It’s so incredible to give local kids the chance to learn from some top quality, world touring musicians, while at the same time opening their minds to music they might not otherwise hear,” Music is Art Founder and President Robby Takac added.

The 5^th Annual Big Easy in Buffalo Mardi Gras Jam is a presentation of Music is Art, along with “Big Chief” sponsors The Buffalo News, New York State Council on the Arts, Erie County, and Zee’s Property Services.

Tab Benoit - From Houma, Louisiana, Tab Benoit is a “Cajun Man with the Blues.”  Since his debut in 1992, Benoit has recorded with Junior Wells, Willie Nelson, Billy Joe Shaver, James Cotton, Cyril Neville, and Kim Wilson of the Fabulous Thunderbirds to name a few.  Fifteen solo recordings, three Grammy nominations, and a budding movie career later his fiery guitar, Cajun influence, rich tone, soulful voice, and seeped with tradition song-writing make him Louisiana's #1 blues & roots music export.  An environmental activist as well as a stellar musician, Benoit has made the preservation of the endangered delta wetlands his personal crusade. 

Cyril Neville - New Orleans’ Offbeat magazine refers to Cyril Neville as “. . .a prophet, keeper of the flame, poet, archivist, musical alchemist, community leader, historian and very much an artist to amaze, educate and entertain.”  Through his Grammy award winning work with the Neville Brothers, the years he spent as vocalist and percussionist with the Meters, to his work today with The Voice of the Wetlands Allstars, Tab Benoit’s Swampland Jam, Galactic, and his own solo band TRIBE 13, Cyril Neville continues to raise the bar for entertainers for years to come.

Big Chief Monk Boudreaux - The New Orleans Mardi Gras Indian tradition is part music, part heritage, part ancestry, part revelry, and part fashion.  Big Chief Monk Boudreaux is one of the most famous and enduring leaders of that culture and head of the Golden Eagle Mardi Gras Indian tribe.  Monk's contribution to the culture and music place him at the top of the list of New Orleans most important musical icons.  He has become the single most recognizable Mardi Gras Indian, and has been the go-to musician when any artist wants to capture the unique music and culture of the Indians.

Waylon Thibodeaux - From Louisiana’s Bayou Country, Waylon Thibodeaux has been dubbed “Louisiana’s Rockin’ Fiddler.”  Waylon is a vocalist and electric fiddle player with an innate musical talent that can be seen in the performance of his Cajun, zydeco and swamp pop music.  

The Tin Men - combine the unlikely instrumentation of sousaphone, washboard, and guitar to form one of New Orleans' most original and entertaining groups.  They explore a truly eclectic array of North American Pop music from jug band to swing jazz to New Orleans R&B to Motown to Easy Listening to Heavy Metal and beyond. Through it all they put their own zany spin on the material and make it their own.

Click on the photo to view the artists website:

The Steam Donkeys - They're a county band.  They're a rock band.  They're  honky-tonkers.  They're swingers (musically, that is).  They're The Steam Donkeys, and there's nobody quite like them.  For more than a decade, the boys have brought their blend of musical virtuosity and eclectiscism to bar stages, street festivals, and massive amphitheatres throughout Buffalo, Western New York and all the way down the Eastern Seaboard.  Their live performances have caused thousands of music lovers to exclaim, "Hey those guys are good," and bar owners to proclaim, "You boys drank a lot of beer."