CAJUN COTTONPICKERS

With more than 100 years of playing experience among them, the Cajun Cottonpickers are a romping, stomping, Cajun-meets-honky-tonk roadhouse band featuring some of our favorite singers and players: guitarist-singer Mitch Polzak, accordionist and pedal steel guitar ace Billy Wilson, fiddler-singer Woody Vermier, bassist/singer Steven Strauss, and drummer Tim Orr. They all play in numerous other American roots dance bands, and as the Cajun Cottonpickers they inject new energy into country and blues honky-tonk, with lots of foot-stompin’ Cajun classics and a new dance called “Jive.” Favorite songs include “Act Naturally,” “Dim Lights, Thick Smoke and Loud Loud Music,” and “Pick Me Up on Your Way Down,” which, Billy Wilson explains, “are at the perfect tempo to keep the Cajun two-steppers out on the hardwood floor.” He summarizes the Cottonpickers’ approach: “Tons o’ Cajun and tons o’ up-tempo honky-tonk country!”