Play Ball
Texas pianist mixes democracy into her music
Thursday, November 16, 2000
Besides being an extraordinary pianist, singer, songwriter and bandleader, Marcia Ball is a voracious reader. She loves books, which, in a roundabout way, explains how, for the first time in years, she found something nice to say about her governor, George W. Bush.
"I just got asked to play at this year's Texas Book Festival (Nov. 10-12), which is the best thing ever to come out of this gubernatorial administration," she says during a telephone interview from her home in Austin, Tex.
Marcia Ball's piano mastery will be featured on her sixth CD, due out early next year.
"Laura Bush started it early on as a fund-raiser for the Texas public libraries. They invite something like 140 authors to come talk, do signings and hang out. It's been a great thing."
Ball, 50, is an enlightened child of the civil-rights-era Deep South. She prefers Ann Richards-style Democrats to dark-suit Republicans.
A full-blooded Cajun, Ball grew up in tiny Vinton, La., a stone's throw from the Texas border. As a child, her bedroom was across the street from the dance hall attached to the Catholic church.
"I used to go to sleep listening to music and people having a good time," she says.
Ball and her band will be at Liberty Hall on friday night for a show that's also a fund-raiser for the state's top Democrat, Kansas Insurance Commissioner Kathleen Sebelius. Suggested contributions are $20.
When: 9 p.m. Friday
Where: Liberty Hall, 644 Mass.
Ticket prices: $20
Ticket information: 749-1972
When: 9 p.m. Sunday
Where: Grand Emporium, 3822 Main, Kansas City, Mo.
Ticket information: (816) 531-1504
"I've known Marcia for, gosh, I'm guessing 20 years," Sebelius says. "She's a good friend. We're concerned about a lot of the same issues. And she's also just an incredible musician."
Lucky breakdown
In 1970, Ball bailed on her studies at Louisiana State University and was headed for San Francisco with her then-husband when their car broke down in Austin, home to a rich music scene defined by the likes of Delbert McClinton, Joe Ely and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Understandably, they stayed.
"Austin was an oasis back then," Ball says. "It was the kind of place where you could be from the South and still be in the South but, at the same time, be exposed to some of the hippie culture."
Though times have certainly changed, Ball claims Austin and Lawrence have a lot in common.
"Austin was a medium-sized town with a large university and a state capitol, which made it a clean-industry town. The economy is stable and the population is fairly well-educated and very much into the arts," she says. "Lawrence is like that, I think. So is Fayetteville (Ark.)."
Ball's music is a blend of everything Gulf Coast: New Orleans rhythm and blues, Mardi Gras romps, swamp rock, zydeco, Cajun, Memphis soul and Texas-style back-alley blues.
Since 1984, Ball has recorded five solid CDs on the Rounder label and a pair of trio outings: "Dreams Come True" (1990) with blues sirens Angela Strehli and Lou Ann Barton, and the Grammy-nominated "Sing It!" (1998) with Tracy Nelson, ex-Mother Earth, and New Orleans' reigning soul queen Irma Thomas.
Ball's sixth solo CD is due out next year.
"We did some recording already and we have some time booked toward the end of the month and early next month," she says. "We're doing a lot of different stuff. At some point, we'll take a look at what's there and see if it all ties together."
She adds: "Doyle is producing," referring to Doyle Bramhall, her former drummer and duet partner who's best known for his collaborations with Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Though heavily influenced by piano masters Professor Longhair, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis and Dr. John, Ball is well known in Austin circles for recruiting top-notch sidemen.
The current lineup includes guitarist Pat Boyak, ex- of Pat Boyak and The Prowlers, long-time bassist Don Bennett, drummer Keith Robinson and on sax, Brad Andrew.
"By the end of the night, I like to think we've given people a little bit of everything that is Louisiana," Ball says.
Charlie Parr (early all-ages patio show) :: This Minneapolis-based Delta Bluesmeister could well have been plucked out of a Harry Smith Anthology, but his songs are his own ... More info
- The Life and Times / The Dactyls / The Noise FM
- Bennett Bros. & Friends / The Ants
- Creature Feature / Tub Ring / The Spook Lights
