New Lower Garden District karaoke club offers private rooms | Entertainment/Life

It wasn’t too long ago that Cajun dance halls were at the center of social life in rural Louisiana, dotting the landscape between rice fields and providing a place where small town folk could gather to celebrate another week of hard work finished.

So it’s only fitting that 44-year-old Ben Miller, born and raised in Vermilion Parish, named his new karaoke club after one such bygone establishment. Singing Cher with 15 friends and dancing to Zydeco for hours have more in common than you might think.

“Just watching people really let go and have some serious connection with their people is really hard to find, I think, in a lot of places now,” Miller said. “And really necessary.”

The idea for Rockabye Karaoke, which opened in the Lower Garden District in late 2025, has been churning in Miller’s mind for well over 20 years now, ever since he overheard his grandparents reminiscing on the rural dance halls and bars of their prime.

When they mentioned Forked Island’s historic Rock-a-Bye Club, the name stuck with him.

Years later, while living in New York and Portland, it clicked. There, Miller was treated to the joys of singing at the top of his lungs in dimly lit, private rooms among friends and co-workers rather than on a stage in front of strangers.

Private-room karaoke, or karaoke boxes, originated in Japan decades ago and are now readily accessible in major cities across the U.S. But in the New Orleans area, the options are few and far between.

“I would come to New Orleans and I’d be like, ‘It’s a music-first city, why is there no private-room karaoke?’” he said. “And so I was just really thinking about how to make that happen.”

He moved back to New Orleans in 2015, but it wasn’t until late last year that the perfect space opened up at 1050 Calliope St. behind Merchant House, where Miller has a design and holiday décor studio. He jumped at the opportunity.

Rockabye offers something a little different than karaoke staples like Kajun’s and Cat’s Meow. There’s no stage, no bar and no DJ taking bribes for better spots in line.

It’s just you, whoever you came with and a couple of microphones in a room. But Miller described it as a near transcendent experience akin to that of those old dance halls, one in which fears are overcome, lifelong bonds are formed and microphones are pried from the hands of once staunch karaoke deniers at the end of the night.

“It’s play, it’s joy in a way that you don’t experience,” Miller said. “Communal singing is, like, very, very healing.”

A vote of confidence like that is impossible to ignore. So we at The Times-Picayune, dedicated as always to fact-checking and truth, decided to check it out for ourselves.

Let’s get it started

Like at most karaoke boxes, the goal at Rockabye is to minimize stage fright and maximize fun.

The three rooms are thoroughly soundproofed for privacy and feature rainbow party lights, a big screen, multiple microphones, an impressive sound system and plenty of seating for 10 to 25 wannabe stars. You can bring your own snacks and booze — which is likely necessary for the releasing of inhibitions — and each room comes with a caddy stocked with ice, cups and a variety of mixers.

At a rate of $15 per person, per hour, plus a 20% per hour service charge, it’s certainly not as cheap as going to the local dive and toughing it out in line. While walk-ins are welcome, Miller said it’s best to reserve rooms ahead of time online at rockabyekaraoke.com, and a deposit is required at booking.

But here at Rockabye, you don’t have to listen to that weird tone-deaf guy butcher “Sweet Caroline.” Instead, you can sing along as your tone-deaf friend screams Queen. It’s your own private party, where you can choose from 90,000 songs and adjust the volume, key and tempo.

“What I’ve seen over and over again is this is a place for celebrations,” Miller said. “This is birthday parties, this is bachelorette parties, this is kids’ birthday parties on the weekends during the daytime.”

Don’t stop believin’

The thought of going into a small room with 15 of your co-workers and singing in front of them may sound intimidating — almost more intimidating than singing to a crowd of strangers.

Turns out it is.

After leading The Times-Picayune group to our room in early April and giving us a crash course in song selection, Miller popped his head in repeatedly over the next 20 minutes — during which not one single song was sung — offering to help us get started. Ultimately it was me who had to break the ice, though, partly because I was the one who forced everyone out for karaoke and also because my boss told me I had to.

I can’t remember ever doing a worse rendition of Cher’s “Believe.”

But Ian McNulty, the knowledgeable food writer he is, brought a box of liquid courage from Patron Saint, which, along with St. Pizza, is conveniently close by. The pile of snacks and drinks littering the room only expanded as more of our colleagues trickled in, and soon the juices were flowing and the setlist was growing.

We are family

I’m can’t pinpoint exactly where things turned. Maybe it was when staff writer Jenna Ross chose Robyn’s “Dancing on My Own,” or when reporter Chelsea Shannon chose “Say It Ain’t So” by Weezer.

But midway through our two hours at Rockabye, we weren’t the same bashful group standing timidly around the screen. We practically screamed Bohemian Rhapsody, danced together to the Dixie Chicks and, giddy with adrenaline, emphatically cheered each and every song choice.

Miller was right — there’s something healing about singing together, about overcoming the awkward and uncomfortable and finding the freedom waiting on the other side.

In the end, Miller had to cut our mics and force us out. As consolation, he let each attendee choose between two stickers bearing opposing sentiments: “I lost my voice at Rockabye,” or “I found my voice at Rockabye.”

Throat scratchy and cheeks sore from laughing, I chose the former. But really I knew we’d all found each other at Rockabye.

Rockabye Karaoke

1050 Calliope St

4 p.m. to midnight Thursday-Saturday

4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday

21 and over only after 6 p.m.