Okay, I am letting the cat out of the bag: I love New Orleans and I love Zydeco!

I grew up with my dad enjoying his Mulates tape (Mulates is a restaurant in New Orleans that always has Cajun music playing) and at the time, I didn’t quite get it; I would have rather been listening to Huey Lewis and the News or Fox 97, but as I have gotten older, I have found I love Zydeco…and really love the washboard!

My best pal Sarah, AKA Hen, and I celebrated our 30th birthdays in New Orleans. Sarah and I noodled around town then decided we should have a cocktail, and low and behold, we found the Bonoffs, a fun local Zydeco band. We fell in love with the music and damn that girl could play the washboard. What was a slow moving bar, quickly turned to a foot tapping bar, a clogging bar and full on performance, by us of course. But, we were addicted.

Since then, I have found myself rigging roasting racks with plastic bags or ribbons so they hang around my neck. This way I can play my version of the washboard since I don’t actually have one. Over the years, my roasting racks have served as a great practicing ground to prepare me for the real thing.

Along the way, I have performed live at my neighbor’s house (xoxo Joe & Jen), in Austin at my sister’s best friend’s house, a mountain house and my house (thank god my husband accepts me for my craziness!). On a trip to New Orleans I did get to perform on a real washboard and had a “washboard off” with a band member. I think you know where this is going…

I am getting a washboard and then going on a hunt to find a band that I can perform live and check this off my bucket list! Ha! Thinking Vixen’s Tennessee launch, specifically Nashville may be just the place!

–Carrie
#futurewashboardextraordinaire