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MONICA HOOPER NWA Democrat-Gazette Y ou can hear the nearly half- century of singing in Marcia Ball's voice when she speaks. The gentle cracks, the even dynamics, her easy laugh. Her voice is well-worn but strong. When it comes to the keys, she plays with the ferocity of an athlete: quick, agile, measured and intense. She says that she laughs when I ask if she's still as rowdy on the stage as she was in her early days when she would shake the stage and the piano. "Yeah," she says almost sheepishly, with a laugh. You can tell she's proud, and grateful. The Austin City Limits Hall of Famer, coming to Northwest Arkansas June 2 for the Eureka Springs Blues Party, says she's been fortunate to be able to keep her skills. "I'm lucky," she says. "I have not had problems — not hand, not wrist. I've been doing this a lot and a long time. And I do [play] heavy. She jokes that after playing a gig with her mentor, the infamous Dr. John, he told her, "You a noisy piano player!" At this point, Ball could probably play in her sleep. She grew up in a musical family with an aunt and her grandmother playing piano while her father was a composer and horn player. "When I was 5 or 6, about to start school, the piano appeared in our living room, an upright piano, and lessons began," she says. "I have a friend, a great accordion player here named Ponty Bone, who always said: 'By the time I said I didn't want to, I already could play.'" Even after she stopped taking music lessons at 14, she says she still poured over her grandmother's Tin Pan Alley sheet music and her aunt's music steeped in the "American Songbook" style of the 1940s-50s. "We didn't have a lot of records," she says, so cousins would visit, and the family would play music for each other. "I have a cousin, they lived down in Corpus Christi, I lived in Louisiana. When they'd come to visit, we were always competing to see who had learned the most — who was playing better — and we played duets," she says. In the meantime, Ball was soaking up the rich musical heritage of Louisiana and Texas that would later become a quintessential part of her self-described "Gulf Coast rhythm and blues." "Growing up in Louisiana, especially at the time that I was growing up, was wonderful," she says. "I grew up in southwest Louisiana, which was down near the Texas border. We got the blues from Texas — Albert Collins and Lonnie Brooks, but we also got Clifton Chenier, who spent a lot of time in Port Arthur, just across the river. And the Cajun bands that played and the local bands that played solo music — they were getting their music from New Orleans." In turn, those musicians were influenced by Fats Domino, Jerry Lee and Little Richard. "All those guys were piano players, so it was just this wealth of good solid soul music that I loved and that New MAY 28-JUNE 3, 2023 WHAT'S UP! 5 'A Noisy Piano Player' Marcia Ball still commands the keyboard Austin-based blues piano icon Marcia Ball opens for fellow Texan and musical legend Ray Wylie Hubbard at 7:30 p.m. June 2 during the Eureka Springs Blues Party. Tickets for the show at The Auditorium are $39 at eurekaspringsbluesparty. com; marciaball.com. (Courtesy Photo) See Ball Page 6 EUREKA SPRINGS FAQ In Concert: Marcia Ball WHAT— Austin- based blues piano icon Marcia Ball opens for fellow Texan and musical legend Ray Wylie Hubbard during the Eureka Springs Blues Party. WHEN — 7:30 p.m. June 2 WHERE — The Auditorium in Eureka Springs COST — $39 INFO — eurekasprings- bluesparty.com; marciaball.com