Delta bluesman Benoit brings latest tour to Fox Tucson

The Delta bluesman travels light: An amp, cords and his well-worn 1972 Fender Telecaster Thinline.

That’s all the four-time Grammy-nominated artist needs to take his audiences to his native Louisiana bayou, a place where the blues are gritty and raw, and to conjure the swampland and all its colors.

Benoit (pronounced ben-wah) sometimes looks like a man possessed as he plays, going from raw, hyper-active attacks to smooth ascending slides that critics have said “mimic the humid, atmospheric vibes” of the performer’s beloved swamplands.

His style leans Cajun and swamp blues, sorta laid back and hypnotic. And just when you start to follow the flow, Benoit tears into a run with the energy of a gator lunging for its prey. There’s a thickness to his tone that fluctuates with punchy rhythms, percussive sounds he makes on the strings and emotional phrasing that cry out beneath his fingertips. His playing isn’t manipulated with auto-tuning or sound effects coming from a pedal. What you hear is pure Benoit.

Same goes for his raw, emotional vocals, which many people are quick to compare to Otis Redding with a strong Cajun accent. Blues Blast magazine recently marveled at how Benoit howls out the vocals and tears at the listeners’ soul, expressing raw emotion and deep pain one minute, mellow reflection the next.

The UK’s Zac Schultze Gang opens the show, which starts at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Fox, 17 W. Congress St. Tickets are $24 to $67 through foxtucson.com.