Is there a name for this kind of percussionism?

Cafe Society
1

Last month, I had the chance to see Josh Kelley playing as opening act for another artist whose name I won’t mention in this thread. I’d never heard of him before, but apparently he used to do rock music and has just fairly recently switched to doing country after the success of his brother’s band Lady Antebellum. He performed with two other musicians - himself on vocals and acoustic guitar and a second on banjo.

The third was sitting on top of a wooden crate and drumming on it with his hands.

Is there a name for that kind of playing? It seems to me like it must come from some sort of jug band or zydeco tradition, but it’s not something that i’ve ever noticed before in any other musical performance.

2

The instrument is called the cajón. (Pronounced ca-HONE.)

3

And of course if you had two of them, they would be your cajones. :stuck_out_tongue:

4

Which means “drawer” (as in “chest of”), derives from caja (box) and is not any kind of body part. They’re used often in flamenco.

5

I was told that cajones in the (slang?) sense of testicles comes from referring to the scrotum as a container, with the meaning shifted from “box” to “bag” or “sack.” Do you know if that’s correct?