Marcia Ball
Marcia Ball
Marcia Ball (born March 20, 1949, Orange, Texas) is an American blues singer and pianist, born in Orange, Texas, and raised in Vinton, Louisiana.
Born into a musical family, Ball learned to play the piano at age 5, and showed an early interest in New Orleans-style piano playing, as exemplified by Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, and James Booker. She has named Irma Thomas, the New Orleans vocalist, as her chief vocal inspiration. Ball studied English at Louisiana State University in the 1960s while playing in a band called "Gum". In 1970, at age 21, she started a progressive country band called "Freda and the Firedogs" in Austin, Texas, and began her solo career in 1974.
Ball's piano style includes elements of zydeco, swamp blues, Louisiana blues, and boogie-woogie. She began her recording career as a solo artist with Rounder Records in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 2001, she joined Chicago-based Alligator Records.
Her Rounder album, "Sing It!", which featured vocalists Irma Thomas and Tracy Nelson, released in January 1998 was nominated for a Grammy Award and a Blues Music Award for "Best Contemporary Blues Album." Ball received the 1998 Blues Music Award for "Contemporary Female Vocalist of the Year" and "Best Blues Instrumentalist-Keyboards." She was awarded “Contemporary Blues Album of the Year” for her albums "Presumed Innocent" (2002) and "So Many Rivers" (2004). The same year she also won “Contemporary Blues Artist of the Year-Female.” She won the "Best Blues Instrumentalist-Keyboards" again in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2009. Her 2003 Alligator release, "So Many Rivers", was nominated for a Grammy as were "Live! Down The Road" (2005) and "Peace, Love & BBQ" (2008). She was inducted into the Austin Music Hall of Fame in 1990.
Ball has continued to work with Irma Thomas. In 2006, the two contributed a duet "Look Up" on the New Orleans Social Club release, "Sing Me Back Home" (Burgundy Records/Honey Darling Records). In 2007, the two contributed another duet "I Can't Get New Orleans Off My Mind" to "Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino" (Vanguard Records).
Ball continues to play at nightclubs, particularly in Austin and New Orleans and performs at music festivals in North America and overseas.
(Marcia Ball at Wilmington's Riverfront Blues Festival 2014)