Marcia Ball: Orange’s Piano-Pounding Hurricane

Today is the birthday of Marcia Ball. She is 77 today.

Marcia Ball was born in Orange, Texas, on March 20, 1949. Orange sits right on the Louisiana border, and Ball grew up hearing both sides of that cultural line — Gulf Coast Texas rhythm and blues mixing with Louisiana swamp blues and zydeco. Her piano style absorbed all of it. She moved to Austin in the early 1970s and joined the blues scene that was just beginning to gather around Antone’s and the Armadillo World Headquarters.

A Left Hand Like a Rhythm Section

Ball recorded her debut album Circuit Queen in 1978. She has been releasing records ever since, earning six Grammy nominations along the way. Her live show is what people talk about — the left hand churning out rolling boogies while the voice cuts through whatever is happening in the room. She has collaborated with Irma Thomas and Tracy Nelson on albums dedicated to Gulf Coast music, and with Angela Strehli and Lou Ann Barton on a celebrated trio album in 1990. She keeps playing, keeps touring, and keeps proving that the blues between Texas and Louisiana is its own particular force of nature. Learn more on Wikipedia.