MARCIA BALL

The simple mention of a Louisiana or Texas roadhouse conjures up images of a crowded dancehall filled wall-to-wall with rabid music fans rocking to a hotter-than-hot band playing a smoldering blend of swampy R&B, jumping blues and heart-wrenching ballads. Pianist/vocalist/songwriter Marcia Ball brings that spirit to every concert she plays and every song she records. Her music is mixed with equal parts simmering soul fervor and two-fisted piano pounding. Between her deeply emotive vocals and her incisive, often poignant songwriting, Ball is in a class by herself. Her groove-laden New Orleans R&B and driving Gulf Coast blues have made her a one-of-a-kind favorite of music fans all over the world. The Boston Herald says, “Piano pounding Marcia Ball plays masterful, red hot tracks from the Texas-Louisiana border. Her voice can break your heart with a ballad or break your back with a rocker.” The Austin Chronicle heralds her as “a class act whose soulful, horn-laden swamp pop and murderous honky-tonk make her a stellar example of musical artistry.” Ball joined the Alligator Records family in 2001 (and also hooked up with the influential Rosebud booking agency that same year) and released the critically acclaimed Presumed Innocent, which took home the 2002 Blues Music Award for Blues Album of the Year. Her follow-up, So Many Rivers, was nominated for a Grammy Award, and won the 2004 Blues Music Award for Contemporary Blues Album of the Year as well as the coveted Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year award. Her next album (her first-ever live recording), Live! Down The Road, released in 2005, also garnered a Grammy nomination. In 2005, 2006 and 2007 the Blues Music Awards honored Ball as the Piano Player of the Year. And now she’s back with her fourth release for Alligator Records, the perfectly titled Peace, Love & BBQ. (“Three of my favorites things,” says Ball). Produced by Stephen Bruton, Peace, Love & BBQ finds Marcia Ball at a creative peak, writing or co-writing eight of the 13 songs on the CD. From deeply moving soul ballads to can’t-sit-still party songs to deeply moving storytelling, the album will delight and inspire Ball’s longtime fans and will certainly turn many newcomers into believers. With guests Dr. John, Wayne Toups, Tracy Nelson and Terrance Simien lending a hand, the music moves effortlessly through a range of emotions, leaving the listener dancing one minute and deeply moved the next. Born in Orange, Texas, in 1949 to a family whose female members all played piano, Ball grew up in the small town of Vinton, Louisiana, right across the border from Texas. She began taking piano lessons at age five, playing old Tin Pan Alley tunes from her grandmother’s collection. From her aunt, Marcia heard more modern and popular music. But it wasn’t until she was 13 that Marcia discovered the blues, as, one day in 1962, she sat amazed while Irma Thomas delivered the most soulful and spirited performance the young teenager had ever seen. According to Ball, “She just blew me away; she caught me totally unaware. Once I started my own band, the first stuff I was doing was Irma’s.” In 1966, she attended Louisiana State University, where she played some of her very first gigs with a blues-based rock band called Gum. In 1970 Ball set out for San Francisco. Her car broke down in Austin, Texas, and while waiting for repairs, she fell in love with the city and decided to stay. It wasn’t long before she was performing in the city’s clubs with a progressive country band called Freda and the Firedogs, while beginning to hone her songwriting skills. It was around this time that she delved deeply into the music of the great New Orleans piano players, especially Professor Longhair. “Once I found out about Professor Longhair,” recalls Ball, “I knew I had found my