Ailee Pardi wasn’t living in Louisiana when the Cajun music bug bit. But it left a mark that she happily hopes never heals.

Growing up in Edgewood, Washington, Pardi remembers her fiddle teacher introducing a few Cajun tunes in class. Those tunes pushed her to attend Cajun and Creole Week, a summer camp at the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, West Virginia, for five years. At Augusta, Pardi heard there was a universit...