The album "Whiskey Store" pairs up two guitar wizards, Jimmy Thackery and Tab Benoit, and lets the good times fly. The blues here is tough and uncompromising, but punches with sophistication and technique. It surpasses most recordings for its consistent rollicking energy and devotion to basic blues values -- sizzling guitar, earthy songs and tight backing. The two frontmen's wide differences in style and temperament bring the level of music that much higher.
Both Thackery and Benoit are revered as blues guitar heroes, and they show just why on the disc. Thackery's roadhouse shows from his early years with seminal blues-bar band The Nighthawks are legendary. The group used to play some 300 nights a year in the early '80s, four to five hours per set. During that time, Thackery developed a raucous, gutbucket style of guitar and a mean, raspy voice to match.
Benoit is younger and less traveled, but just as savvy when it comes to reeling off guitar solos. When playing together, his softer sound -- a Louisiana and east Texas blend -- is almost lost amid Thackery's rough-and-tumble attack, but Benoit still manages to temper it with crisper and leaner guitar and vocals. After Thackery's barroom shout, Benoit's voice answers with sadness and complaint. When Thackery drops a load of harsh notes, Benoit polishes them with a buffed-up riff. When Benoit puts out too delicate a line, Thackery throws dirt on it.