Marcia Ball concert at the Bosque Arts Center rescheduled for July 11 after postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown
CLIFTON – As guidelines for reopening the country begin to take shape, the Bosque Arts Center has renewed plans to bring Marcia Ball, piano player extraordinaire, to the stage July 11.
Bringing elements of Zydeco, blues, and boogie-woogie in her rollicking musical style, Ball and her band have often been compared to Memphis Slim and Fats Domino for its New Orleans influence. Although originally planned for March 14, ticket holders for the Marcia Ball concert had the choice to keep their tickets or request a refund when the show was postponed due to the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.
Marcia Ball and her band will take the stage at 7 p.m. with doors opening at 5:30 p.m. for pre-show with food and beverages.
Allmusic.com’s Mark Demming describes pianist and singer/songwriter Marcia Ball as a living example of how East Texas blues meets Southwest Louisiana swamp rock. USA Today lauded her as “a sensation, saucy singer and superb pianist,” while The Boston Globe described 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."
Ball, born March 20, 1949 in Orange, Texas, grew up across the border in Vinton, Louisiana. Demming reports that the town is squarely in the heart of "the Texas Triangle," an area that includes portions of both states and has produced some of the country's greatest blues talents, including Janis Joplin, Johnny and Edgar Winter, Queen Ida Guillory, Lonnie Brooks, Zachary Richard, and Clifton Chenier, to name a few.
Ball began playing piano at age five, learning from her grandmother and aunt while also taking formal lessons from a teacher. Her earliest awareness of blues came over the radio, where she heard people like Irma Thomas, Professor Longhair, and Etta James, all of whom she credits as influences.
Winning numerous awards for blues instrumentals, Ball’s most recent award came in 2019, named the Pinetop Perkins Piano Player from the Blues Music Award Academy. “Shine Bright,” “Roadside Attractions,” “Sing It,” “So Many Rivers,” and “Blue House” represent only a few of her songs.
This concert will be made possible thanks to generous underwriting by Tom & Joanne Blossom, Dick & Susan Frazier, Phyllis Gamble & Mechelle Slaughter and Roger Mitchell, in addition to a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts.
For more information, contact the Bosque Arts Center at 254-675-3724, or find the BAC on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/BosqueArtsCenter/. Tickets can be purchased through the BAC website at: https://www.bosqueartscenter.org/tickets.aspx.
Photos courtesy of MARY BRUTON & MARCIA BALL
©2020 Southern Cross Creative, LLP. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
