Marcia Ball is a blues legend. Born in Orange, Texas, raised in Vinton, Louisiana, she started her solo career in 1974, inspired by the piano playing of Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, and James Booker, and the vocal magic of Irma Thomas. She chose her idols well. The Boston Globe describes her music as “an irresistible celebratory blend of rollicking, two-fisted New Orleans piano, Louisiana swamp-rock, and smoldering Texas blues from a contemporary storyteller.” She’s won several Blues Music Awards and earned multiple Grammy nominations, appeared on Fresh Air, Piano Jazz, A Prairie Home Companion, and Austin City Limits, as well as at the White House. “Few things in life are as reliable as a Marcia Ball performance,” says the website popmatters. “For more than four decades, the Louisiana-by-way-of-Texas musician has magnificently played piano and sung her way through the blues with incredible amounts of heart and soul. Ball is the real deal: equal parts New Orleans, boogie woogie, swamp music, and Texas soul all wrapped up into one package.”

Marcia has recorded 15 solo albums, including her latest, Roadside Attractions, which features her own originals. According the Chicago Blues Guide, she “sings like she is having the time of her life on the road of existence. You’ll be sticking out your thumb, begging for a ride.” Here’s how Marcia puts it: “Forty years of roadside attractions and the life of roaming ’round has never worn thin. I love it when the wheels start rolling, when the band starts playing, when the crowds start dancing.” Tonight we all get a chance to share that feeling when Marcia plays and sings!

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