Washboard Chaz Leary has become a fixture on the New Orleans club scene, a constant presence fronting his own band or playing with the Tin Men, the Palmetto Bug Stompers, Andy J. Forest and many others. One of the alternative programs opposite this year’s Jazz and Heritage Festival was even dubbed “Chaz Fest.”

Chaz plays a deceptively unique instrument, blues washboard, not to be confused with the ubiquitous zydeco rubboard. Leary’s wood framed washboard is outfitted with a wood block and a hotel call bell. He plays it like a drum kit, ratcheting over the ridges of the corrugated metal as if it were a snare drum and using the block, bell and wooden frame for rhythmic accents. The resultant sound of Leary’s blues band recalls the sprightly acoustic dance music of the 1930s popularized by the Mississippi Sheiks, Bo Carter and Tampa Red. It’s all uptempo, jump rhythms pushed by Leary’s washboard with structural accompaniment from Roberto Luti’s superb guitar chording and melodic leads and fills on harmonica from Ben Maygarden.

But the most exciting instrument in this lineup is Leary’s voice, a high pitched yet dense and reedy instrument that fills Willie Brown’s “Future Blues” with five minutes of dramatic tension. When he sings, “I can’t tell my future, I can’t tell my past / It seems like every minute gonna be my last,” Leary makes you think about the Hard Year Blues of the title. Elsewhere he does a soulful reading of the Jesse Ed Davis/Taj Mahal classic “Corrina,” calls out a horn-like riff on “Long Gone From Bowling Green,” throws down at hypocritical preachers (we all know who he’s talking about) in “He Calls That Religion” and delivers the melodic hook of Carter’s “I Want You To Know” like it was written yesterday. The band’s ability to make songs written in the Great Depression sound like contemporary material is the key to its success, but when you consider that Bob Dylan is currently taking inspiration from the same sources, it makes a lot of sense.