Effective, Eclectic
singer, songwriter and pianist
Marcia Ball honed her powerful singing and deft, rollicking keyboard
chops while growing up in the small town of Vinton, Louisiana, on the Texas
border. This musical and cultural frontier has produced such other roots-music
greats as Gatemouth Brown, George Jones, Janis Joplin, Clarence Garlow,
Cleveland Crochet, Clifton Chenier, Joe Bonsall and Johnny and Edgar Winter.
It was and still is a hotbed of country, blues, gospel, Cajun, zydeco, rockabilly
and Gulf Coast “swamp pop”, and young Marcia absorbed it all, even as she
was receiving her formal piano training. At the end of 1997, Marcia finished
work on a similar “three divas of the blues” project for Rounder, this time
in the distinguished company of Irma Thomas and Tracy Nelson. The album,
Sing It! was released in January 1998 and was nominated for both a Grammy
and Handy as “Best Contemporary Blues Album”. Ball also appears as a featured
singer with Cajun country legends the Hackberry Ramblers on their recent
Deep Water album (on the Hot Biscuits label), where she makes her recording
debut singing in Cajun French (“Les Blues de Bosco”). |
