Here's what I knew the day before going to hear blues artist Tab Benoit at the Coffee Pot last week.

New Orleans had been protected from most flooding by a system of levees and pumps surrounding a city that is mostly below sea level. The construction of those levees over the decades have prevented Mississippi Delta silt from settling in Louisiana's wetlands -- the result of which is uncommon erosion of those wetlands, a natural storm buffer.

I also knew that the city's levees would be unlikely to protect it from a massive hurricane such as Katrina, which devastated the city and much of the rest of the Gulf Coast last year.

Most of that information was available from the New Orleans Times-Picayune's 2002 series "Washing Away" (www.nola.com), frightening in its prediction of what Katrina would bring on the Crescent City. The Associated Press soon followed with a strong piece about the wetlands.

Oh, yeah -- I also knew Tab Benoit was a pretty good guitar player.

Here's what I knew the day after hearing Benoit and his band. Benoit is an amazing live guitarist with a strong, authentic voice. And he cares about what's going on in those Gulf Coast wetlands more than anyone I know.

After leading his trio through a first set of hair-singeing blues, Cajun, country, funk, etc., Benoit took the stage alone to begin the second set. He played a country blues song or two, then began a long monologue on the problems before, during and after Hurricane Katrina. He spared no one, least of all government at every level, from criticism.

It was quite a jolt to hear at first, especially given that in the first set he had been as much a stand-up comic as a guitar slinger. And by the end, a few people were growing restless. But Benoit, whose hometown of Houma, La., is about 60 miles southwest of New Orleans, told the crowd that he feels compelled to speak up.

"The best thing you could do is, on your vacation this year, go down to New Orleans and see how devastated it still is," he told the audience. "This could be the last time you ever see it."

In 2003, Benoit founded Voice of the Wetlands, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to saving south Louisiana's natural treasure. He gathered musicians such as Dr. John, Cyril Neville, George Porter Jr. and Johnny Vidacovich to record the 2005 Rykodisc record "Voice of the Wetlands." (Hear cuts at www.myspace.com/voiceofthewetlands.)

The most important thing for people to realize is that the storm may have passed, but the damage to people's lives and to the ecosystem is only beginning, Benoit said. Levees, such as they are, are up again around New Orleans, but that doesn't help the wetlands, which no longer protect the Louisiana coast -- because they're disappearing at the rate of a football field every half hour, Benoit told the Coffee Pot audience.

He doesn't trust the government to help and called on average citizens to band together before the land, music, culture and people of south Louisiana are completely dispersed.

Then he ripped into some smoking blues and finished the night.

More:

• National Public Radio interview with Tab Benoit