Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Tattooed Lady to stomp through Gator by the Bay

Marcia Ball's been playing it her way for a while

Marcia Ball
Marcia Ball

The pedigree is deep and jam-packed with true musical genius for this genre in which Marcia Ball specializes, meaning roadhouse New Orleans swamp boogie. It’s a music that comes out of another time and place in American pop culture, but it still speaks to audiences to this day. The roll call includes such names as Professor Longhair and Dr. John, Huey Smith, Allen Toussaint, and James Booker.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Past Event

Gator by the Bay

  • Thursday, May 11, 2017, 6 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.
  • Spanish Landing Park, 4077 N. Harbor Drive, San Diego
  • $35 - $40

All in all, NOLA piano is kind of a man’s club. But Ball is not without stunning contemporaries such as Honey Piazza, the keyboardist in her hubby Rod’s band the Mighty Flyers. Here in this town, we have a bluesy pianist named Taryn Donath; and Sue Palmer, elsewise known as the Queen of Boogie Woogie.

Now 68, Ball broke out of obscurity 16 years ago with a collection of Texas stomp and roots boogie titled Presumed Innocent. Listen to “I’m Coming Down with the Blues” — it’s a song cut from the same cloth as the Fats Domino school of NOLA rhythm-and-blues and it not only demonstrates what a keen student of the form that Ball is, but that she can play it her way. That album made the eventual Grammy nominee into a mainstay on the blues-festival circuit.

Ball was born in Texas but was raised near the Louisiana-Texas border, that little swamp-and-skeeter-infested part of the world that fostered so many other fine musicians. Ball is the whole package, a driving stride pianist with a huge book of standards and originals and a voice worn smooth by age and years on the road. If she’s a little too in front of the groove for NOLA aficionados, remember that blues music is flexible and loose and as such is open to interpretation. Ball’s still a good time — like most all blues roots artists, she only gets better with age.

Video:

Marcia Ball, "That's Enough of That Stuff"

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Could Supplemental Security Income house the homeless?

A board and care resident proposes a possible solution
Marcia Ball
Marcia Ball

The pedigree is deep and jam-packed with true musical genius for this genre in which Marcia Ball specializes, meaning roadhouse New Orleans swamp boogie. It’s a music that comes out of another time and place in American pop culture, but it still speaks to audiences to this day. The roll call includes such names as Professor Longhair and Dr. John, Huey Smith, Allen Toussaint, and James Booker.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Past Event

Gator by the Bay

  • Thursday, May 11, 2017, 6 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.
  • Spanish Landing Park, 4077 N. Harbor Drive, San Diego
  • $35 - $40

All in all, NOLA piano is kind of a man’s club. But Ball is not without stunning contemporaries such as Honey Piazza, the keyboardist in her hubby Rod’s band the Mighty Flyers. Here in this town, we have a bluesy pianist named Taryn Donath; and Sue Palmer, elsewise known as the Queen of Boogie Woogie.

Now 68, Ball broke out of obscurity 16 years ago with a collection of Texas stomp and roots boogie titled Presumed Innocent. Listen to “I’m Coming Down with the Blues” — it’s a song cut from the same cloth as the Fats Domino school of NOLA rhythm-and-blues and it not only demonstrates what a keen student of the form that Ball is, but that she can play it her way. That album made the eventual Grammy nominee into a mainstay on the blues-festival circuit.

Ball was born in Texas but was raised near the Louisiana-Texas border, that little swamp-and-skeeter-infested part of the world that fostered so many other fine musicians. Ball is the whole package, a driving stride pianist with a huge book of standards and originals and a voice worn smooth by age and years on the road. If she’s a little too in front of the groove for NOLA aficionados, remember that blues music is flexible and loose and as such is open to interpretation. Ball’s still a good time — like most all blues roots artists, she only gets better with age.

Video:

Marcia Ball, "That's Enough of That Stuff"

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Live Five: Sitting On Stacy, Matte Blvck, Think X, Hendrix Celebration, Coriander

Alt-ska, dark electro-pop, tributes, and coastal rock in Solana Beach, Little Italy, Pacific Beach
Next Article

Trophy truck crushes four at Baja 1000

"Two other racers on quads died too,"
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader