Homeless Rescue Dogs Can Bank On Tank

Tarriona “Tank” Ball, the Dynamic Frontwoman for GRAMMY®-Nominated Tank and the Bangas, Finds Fostering is Perfect for Fitting a Dog into Her Life after Caring for a Puppy from Zeus’ Rescues In a city where music is king, Tank and the Bangas reign supreme over New Orleans’ esteemed musical landscape and beyond with their magical formula of deep-souled fly-funked R&B, hip-hop, gospel, spoken word and rock-infused critically acclaimed music, with beautiful and vibrant lead vocalist and brilliant lyricist Tarriona “Tank” Ball presiding. Ball and the super talented “Bangas”—Norman Spence on keys, Joshua Johnson on drums and Albert Allenback on alto saxophone and flute—excited, delighted and impressed audiences with their dazzling live shows even before they self-released their debut studio album Think Tank in 2013. They handily beat out 6,000 other entries with a unanimous concurrence of all judges to win NPR’s coveted 2017 Tiny Desk Contest, a life-changing event for the band. And after dropping their second album Green Balloon in 2019 on major label Verve Forecast, Tank and the Bangas were nominated for Best New Artist for the 2020 Grammy Awards. More honors came when their 2022 album Red Balloon was nominated for a 2023 Grammy Award for Best Progressive R&B Album. And although Ball hankers for a pet pup to call her own—the shining star’s bustling schedule doesn’t allow for one now—she realized that fostering dogs is the ideal way to get those joyful puppy kisses she craves into her life.

“I’ve always wanted a puppy,” says Ball, who’s witty, charming, hilarious and possesses a limitless amount of the “it” factor. “My friends know and ask me every birthday, ‘Tank, you want a dog?’ because I’m always randomly saying, and this is literally my quote: ‘I wish I had a puppy to go home to! Having a dog jumping up and being so excited to see you—now that’s just built-in love and oh, I want that!’ But then responsibility kicks in so I’m like, 'Wait a minute!’ (Laughs.) ‘With my lifestyle I can’t really commit to being a full-on dog mom.’ But one day I was walking up the street and saw a sign to come and see the dogs at Zeus’ Rescues on Napoleon Avenue, so I went in. I always wished I could rent a pup! What about the people who just want to be licked and hugged and give it right on back to the puppies—where’s that at? Well, Zeus’ Rescues is the perfect place for that!”

Zeus’ Rescues—founded by homeless pet savior Michelle Ingram—is an incredibly dedicated volunteer group passionate about ensuring that animals rescued in the New Orleans metro area get adopted, and hopefully get placed with devoted foster parents while waiting to get adopted. And although Ball usually just visited the dogs at Zeus’ for mutual mood boosting, she made a bigger commitment earlier this year and took home a little pit bull mix puppy, Cucumber, to foster. “Michelle knows me and trusts me to foster, so that’s cool,” says Ball. “When you go into Zeus’ you can tell the ones that really want to go home with somebody. I wanted a dog to be automatically lovin’ on me and giving me those kisses and licks and cuddling and chilling with me.”

“Cucumber was so smart and loving,” says Ball. “I could tell I gave him an experience he never had before—riding in the car home, head out the window looking at the view of the city instead of just the room he was held in. He ran into my house like he knew was home. It’s very special to know you gave them something that will be part of the fabric of their lives. And when I posted Cucumber online someone told me they had actually rescued him and brought him in,” says Ball. “They saw an older dog on their Ring Camera, the mama or whoever, drop him off on the sidewalk and just walk away! I was like, ‘Wow, that really is a freaking adoption story!’ Like, I’m literally giving up my baby to a place where they can take care of him because I clearly can’t. He really was a foster child, that poor baby.”

As Cucumber’s foster mama, Ball realized she could positively impact his life by giving him the doting attention and human interaction necessary to help him thrive before he’d be adopted. “They need us so bad, like a baby does,” says Ball. “They need to be touched and loved on. As soon as I’d come home, I felt like a mom. He cried for me in his cage and I couldn’t take care of myself right quick; I had to clean his cage, get his food ready and clean him off. I had to make sure he was OK! It’s rewarding but it’s a lot of work and I do not shy away from that. If you know your own self—you know that quote: ‘To thine own self be true’—don’t be getting no puppy if you can’t handle no puppy! The caring is real! Hats go off to Michelle and everyone over at Zeus’ that really care for these animals day to day. And when you’re a foster parent and give them love and show them that humans can be trusted then that’s a win-win for me because what I get from them is just amazing.”

Letting Cucumber go was bittersweet for Ball, but him getting adopted back at Zeus’ Rescues made it all worthwhile. “My best friend has a pit bull, Blue, and Blue and Cucumber loved each other; oh, they would have been best friends!” says Ball. “They played and it was so beautiful. I could tell Cucumber was going to be a big ol’ dog and I was very excited for his growth. I posted online about him and told people they could find him at Zeus’ and bring him home and people responded to that. The good thing is that when he went back to Zeus’ he was handed off to someone and he was happy to see her—he already had family there. The next time I saw Cucumber he was excited to see me, but he started talking to me a certain way, like ‘Is he fussing at me because I brought him back?’ (Laughs.) When I went to see him again, somebody had adopted him the day before. I had seen someone playing with him that was really excited about him and I thought, ‘This is what it’s all about.’”

Ball and her three older sisters and brother grew up in New Orleans in an animal-friendly family and she remembers trips to Audubon Zoo and visiting the Louisiana SPCA. “And also calling the SPCA because somebody was running wild in the neighborhood!” says Ball. “We always had a puppy. We had Fluffy, Heather, Cocoa, Lucky … I forgot what the hamster’s name was … Bubbles. We had two really young puppies; a neighborhood boy took them away from their mom and everyone heard that rumor that you can’t give a dog back to their parents after humans handled them or they’ll smell it and kill it, so we had to nurse them with bottles like babies until they were full grown.”

There’s no one particular type of dog that Ball favors over another. “It’s just like a man – you gotta be cute to me! (Laughs.) You hear somebody say, ‘Oh that’s an ugly dog, he looks funny!’ If I think you’re cute, it’s all good!” And after unfortunately being bit by a dog years ago, Ball is understandably cautious at first around dogs. “I was just chilling in the neighborhood, singing—maybe I was singing too loud! But a neighborhood dog I saw every day that never attacked me before came up to me and just randomly attacked my leg—it was crazy! I was like, ‘Wait a minute!’ It scared me for years and I don’t trust all dogs just because of that experience. I’m definitely not going to walk up to a big ol’ dog and be like ‘Come here doggie!’ No! I’m going to ask the owner if I can touch it or just look at it and admire its cuteness; I don’t have to touch something just ‘cause it’s cute. ‘I was just singing my damn song! You bite my leg like that!’ He wasn’t a fan, that’s the only thing I could say.”

Encouraging people to welcome dogs into their lives by fostering, adopting and even visiting dogs in shelters to share the love is important to Ball. “Humans and dogs are definitely mutually beneficial to each other,” says Ball. “I just told my bandmember Albert how dogs really do help, since feelings go up and down. I had a bad day and I rolled straight over to Zeus’—I didn’t want to talk to a friend, I didn’t want to talk to my mom. I knew I wanted the affection, the sweetness, the non-judgmentalness of dogs. If people don’t have a dog’s love in their life, they’re missing out on a good friend. And you give them an unselfish love that you didn’t even know that you had inside of you to give. Dogs are our other living beings on this earth, living with and amongst us. It would be great to treat everything with due respect. We have a way of not paying much attention to people who don’t speak the same language as us and we do that with dogs as well.”

The GRAMMY®-nominated Red Balloon was spawned during the pandemic lockdowns, and while the album explores some heavy hitting subjects—like the slave trade on the song “Stolen Fruit” —listeners come away with feelings of ebullience and hope thanks to the sonic joy buoying the words and the celebratory beauty of Black life. Featured guests on Red Balloon include Big Freedia, Wayne Brady, Trombone Shorty and Lalah Hathaway and the album continues to garner tremendous accolades; even Michelle Obama is a fan. In the song “Oak Tree” there’s a nod to animals: You freakin’ cannibal, animals be people too. “Oh my God!” says Ball. “I love that lyric even though I be eatin’ chicken!” (Laughs.) And according to Ball, a seasoned slam poet who released her first book of poetry in 2021, Vulnerable AF—also available as an Audie Award-nominated audiobook that Ball voices with her heart on her sleeve—the evolution between Green Balloon and Red Balloon is seismic.

“They don’t even sound like the same people made those albums, they’re so different!” says Ball. “We knew with Red Balloon the words were more intense, so we knew we were going to change—but not that much! Both albums have their own strengths but they are two different animals, like a Rottweiler and a Shih Tzu! On Green Balloon we sound more like playful people running around trying to figure out themselves, like teenagers, and on Red Balloon I hear the maturity; she has been in love at least once. We made a lot of it in Earth, Wind & Fire’s old studio in L.A. and I felt that energy. It was so special and the music sounds richer. I never looked for a Grammy for anything so it’s all pretty much like, ‘What?!’ Normally for an album it’ll be like, ‘OK I’ll sing you the keys, OK put a bass on it,’ but this time it was like, 'Let’s all play united together right here—hit the recorder.’ I always tell producers just to keep the recorder going because with Tank and the Bangas some magic is going to happen. I know we’re going to get it.”

Fresh off Tank and the Bangas’ 2023 GRAMMY® Awards attendance considering their nomination for Best Progressive R&B Album for Red Balloon, Ball is still on Cloud 9. “The Grammys were so beautiful,” says Ball. “There were so many amazing gifts. Oh, it was so cool! I got to meet all these amazing people. My hair, my look—everything was just a showstopper. We got invited to the Roc Nation Brunch just moments away from Beyonce’s house. You don’t feel like people that high up even know who you are. It’s amazing that out of all these many bands, musicians and artists in this world, that they only pick five for the category that you’re in. It doesn’t define you to get nominated for a Grammy, but it sure helps to get that attention. I’m just happy my peers recognized what a beautiful album we put out.”

Tank and the Bangas are touring to support Red Balloon this spring and will be in New Orleans for what is guaranteed to be some incredible and memorable shows at the French Quarter Festival on Sunday, April 16, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on Friday, April 28 and at Daze Between New Orleans on Tuesday, May 2 at the Faubourg Brewery. “I love playing our New Orleans festivals and I can’t wait to perform Red Balloon for everyone,” says Ball. “We still have such a ways to go; there’s still a lot of people in our own city that’s like, ‘Who’s that?’ Alright, well let me show you!” (Laughs.) The band is also busy with their new song “DM Pretty,” an ode to female empowerment that went viral on TikTok. “It’s non-stop all year, and I look forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas so I can chill out with my family. They would love to come to my house and see a puppy—they would go crazy! I want to foster more on the weekends I’m home. As a matter of fact, I ought to foster another one today while I still have time. Yeah, I’m gonna go get me another baby!”

For more information, please see tankandthebangas.com, @TankandDaBangas, @tankandthebangas, @thinktank20, linktr.ee/tankandthebangas, verveforecast.com, zeusrescues.org, @zeusrescues, linktr.ee/zeusrescues, frenchquarterfest.org, nojazzfest.com, dazebetweennola.com