Kathy Helm (t-fer, washboard)  Kathy had been suppressing her desire to bang on things ever since middle school when she was told that "girls don't play drums". About 10 years ago she started taking African drumming lessons, then a few years later took up the bodhran so she could play with the local jam band - Moldy Jam.  In 2009 she joined the Prairie Bayou Band. Once she started playing that Cajun rhythm she couldn't stop. She retired from the Madison Public Schools in 2008 and now is volunteering and playing music.
	Karen Holden (electric bass, vocals).  Karen came to Cajun music through dance—Bharata Natyam as a child in India and contra and Cajun as an adult in Madison. She started playing Cajun music when in about 2001 she paused during a dance and listened to the music.  First starting on the accordion, she took up the guitar when she realized guitars, but not accordions, could play all through a jam no matter how many fellow instrumentalists were playing. She took up the electric bass in 2007, taking lessons at the Augusta Heritage Center Cajun week in 2008 and 2009.  She plays t-fer ("little iron") and is the dance instructor for Madison’s Cajun Strangers band. She teaches Cajun/zydeco dance through the University of Wisconsin Union mini-course series.  Karen retired in June 2009 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she was Professor of Public Affairs and Consumer Science, retiring in part to have more time for music and dance.
	Patty Jensen (accordion). Patty is originally from the Twin Cities and moved to WI in 1987.  Her first exposure to Cajun music was through WORT Community Radio in Madison.  After realizing that she wanted to do more than just listen to Cajun music, she decided to take up the diatonic accordion in 2005.  Since then, she has learned from John Romano of Madison's own Cajun Strangers, Charlie Terr of The Chicago Cajun Aces and most recently from Paul Daigle of Cajun Gold at Augusta Heritage Cajun Week in West Virginia.  Patty is know as the non-dancer of the band.  She is often asked "How can you like Cajun music and not dance?"  To which she's been known to reply "How can you like Cajun music and not play the accordion?"

Jean Schluter (fiddle, vocals).  Jean Schluter is a long-time viola player, who switched to playing the violin before finding her musical home in Cajun fiddling.  Along with the rest of the band, she studies and practices the unique techniques and multiple styles of playing Cajun music by attending the annual spring Folklore Village Cajun weekend and the summer week-long Augusta Heritage Center Cajun/Creole program at Davis and Elkins College, Elkins, WV as well as through Madison-area jams and our own practices.  Email us if you'd like to be invited to jams either because you play Cajun music already, or play or are beginning to play an instrument and would like to explore Cajun music.

Susan Jensen (ukulele, vocals). Susan is a dancer first but has dabbled with playing musical instruments for many years, searching for the “right one”. She played old time and Celtic fiddle for several years but their relationship reached a plateau and they ended up parting ways. They remain friends. After several years away from playing, she had a steamy, albeit short-lived, love affair with a steel guitar. Her heart remains broken to this day. She got practical and tried guitar but that just left her in tears – for those of you who have tried and fail, you understand. Finally, in walked a ukulele and she thought, “Hmmm, four strings, four fingers… this might be good”. The rest is history. When Susan is not playing ukulele or dancing she can be found at work at the Waisman Center’s Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior and the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds where her role is much like that of cruise director, Julie McCoy, from The Love Boat.

Susan Padberg (rhythm guitar, vocals) learned to play guitar as a child from her father, who grew up in the Ozarks in a family with old-time music roots.  She took a break in college from playing guitar until 2008, when she started studying and playing again.  Cajun music speaks to her family origins in traditional folk music, and rhythm guitar playing honors her love of Cajun dance. Susan is married with two adult children.  She is a medical acupuncturist, and further information can be obtained from her website at www.padbergacupuncture.com