Tab Benoit, Dr. John, others fight to save coast

Some of Louisiana's best known musicians have joined forces in an ongoing effort to help save Louisiana's coast and at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival fans will reap the benefits of the homegrown collaboration.

On Saturday, Voice of the Wetlands All-Stars featuring Tab Benoit, Dr. John, Cyril Neville, Anders Osbourne, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, Johnny Vidacovich, Johnny Sansone and Waylon Thibodeaux hit the Acura Stage — the festival's largest — just before another headliner: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Benoit, a Cajun musician, founded the all-star band to help send the message that coastal land loss is as big a national problem as it is a state problem.

Coastal Louisiana, which sits atop the 7,000-year-old Mississippi delta, has lost about 1,900 square miles of land since the 1930s.