BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//www.yoshis.com/oakland//NONSGML kigkonsult.se iCalcreator 2.10.5// X-WR-CALNAME:www.yoshis.com/oakland X-WR-CALDESC:www.yoshis.com/oakland X-WR-TIMEZONE:US/Pacific BEGIN:VEVENT UID:20120517T011752CEST-14824LIbML@www.yoshis.com/oakland DTSTAMP:20120516T230552Z DESCRIPTION:A sensational\, saucy singer and superb pianist...where Texas s tomp-rock and Louisiana blues-swamp meet"\; - USA Today \n"\;An ir resistible\, celebratory blend of rollicking\, two-fisted New Orleans pian o\, Louisiana Swamp rock and smoldering Texas blues from a compelling stor yteller."\; - Boston Globe\nThe simple mention of a Louisiana or Texas roadhouse conjures up images of a crowded dancehall filled wall-to-wall w ith rabid music fans rocking to a hotter-than-hot band playing a smolderin g blend of swampy R&\;B\, jumping blues and heart-wrenching ballads. Pi anist/vocalist/songwriter Marcia Ball brings that spirit to every concert she plays and every song she records. Her music is mixed with equal parts of simmering soul fervor and two-fisted piano pounding. Between her deeply emotive vocals and her incisive\, often poignant songwriting\, Ball is in a class by herself. Her groove-laden New Orleans R&\;B and driving Gul f Coast blues have made her a one-of-a-kind favorite of music fans all ove r the world. The Boston Herald says\, &ldquo\;Piano pounding Marcia Ball p lays masterful\, red hot tracks from the Texas-Louisiana border. Her voice can break your heart with a ballad or break your back with a rocker.&rdqu o\; The Austin Chronicle heralds her as &ldquo\;a class act whose soulful\ , horn-laden swamp pop and murderous honky-tonk make her a stellar example of musical artistry.&rdquo\; \nBall joined the Alligator Records family i n 2001 (and also hooked up with the influential Rosebud booking agency tha t same year) and released the critically acclaimed Presumed Innocent\, whi ch took home the 2002 Blues Music Award for &ldquo\;Blues Album Of The Yea r.&rdquo\; Her follow-up\, So Many Rivers\, was nominated for a Grammy Awa rd\, and won the 2004 Blues Music Award for &ldquo\;Contemporary Blues Alb um Of The Year&rdquo\; as well as the coveted &ldquo\;Contemporary Blues F emale Artist Of The Year&rdquo\; award. Her next album (her first-ever liv e recording)\, Live! Down The Road\, released in 2005\, also garnered a Gr ammy nomination. In 2005\, 2006 and 2007 the Blues Music Awards honored Ba ll as the &ldquo\;Piano Player Of The Year.&rdquo\; And now she&rsquo\;s b ack with her first studio album in four years\, the perfectly titled Peace \, Love &\; BBQ (&ldquo\;Three of my favorites things\,&rdquo\; says Ba ll).\nProduced by Stephen Bruton\, Peace\, Love &\; BBQ finds Marcia Ba ll at a creative peak\, writing or co-writing eight of the thirteen songs on the CD. From deep soul ballads to can&rsquo\;t-sit-still party songs to straight-from-the-heart storytelling\, the album will delight and inspire Ball&rsquo\;s longtime fans and will certainly turn many newcomers into b elievers. With guests Dr. John\, Wayne Toups\, Tracy Nelson and Terrance S imien lending a hand\, the music moves effortlessly through a range of emo tions\, leaving the listener dancing one minute and deeply moved the next. Born in Orange\, Texas\, in 1949 to a family whose female members all play ed piano\, Ball grew up in the small town of Vinton\, Louisiana\, right ac ross the border from Texas. She began taking piano lessons at age five\, p laying old Tin Pan Alley tunes from her grandmother&rsquo\;s collection. F rom her aunt\, Marcia heard more modern and popular music. But it wasn&rsq uo\;t until she was 13 that Marcia discovered the blues as\, one day in 19 62\, she sat amazed while Irma Thomas delivered the most soulful and spiri ted performance the young teenager had ever seen. According to Ball\, &ldq uo\;She just blew me away\; she caught me totally unaware. Once I started my own band\, the first stuff I was doing was Irma&rsquo\;s.&rdquo\; In 19 66\, she attended Louisiana State University\, where she played some of he r very first gigs with a blues-based rock band called Gum.\nIn 1970\, Ball set out for San Francisco. Her car broke down in Austin\, Texas\, and whi le waiting for repairs\, she fell in love with the city and decided to sta y. It wasn&rsquo\;t long before she was performing in the city&rsquo\;s cl ubs with a progressive country band called Freda And The Firedogs\, while beginning to hone her songwriting skills. It was around this time that she delved deeply into the music of the great New Orleans piano players\, esp ecially Professor Longhair. &ldquo\;Once I found out about Professor Longh air\,&rdquo\; recalls Ball\, &ldquo\;I knew I had found my direction.&rdqu o\; \nWhen the band broke up in 1974\, Marcia launched her solo career\, s igning to Capitol Records and debuting with the country album Circuit Quee n in 1978. She released six critically acclaimed albums on the Rounder lab el during the 1980s and 1990s. In 1990\, Ball - collaborating with Angela Strehli and Lou Ann Barton - recorded the hugely successful Dreams Come Tr ue on the Antone&rsquo\;s label. At the end of 1997\, Marcia finished work on a similar &ldquo\;three divas of the blues&rdquo\; project for Rounder \, this time in the distinguished company of Tracy Nelson and her longtime inspiration\, Irma Thomas. The album\, Sing It!\, was released in January \, 1998 and was nominated for both a Grammy and a Blues Music Award as Bes t Contemporary Blues Album. She also received the 1998 Blues Music Award f or &ldquo\;Contemporary Female Vocalist Of The Year&rdquo\; and for &ldquo \;Best Blues Instrumentalist-Keyboards.&rdquo\; In 1999\, Marcia and her b and appeared in the nationally televised Public Television special In Perf ormance At The White House along with B.B. King and Della Reese. Her album s and performances received glowing reviews in major music publications\, and Marcia was featured on leading television and radio programs\, includi ng Austin City Limits and National Public Radio&rsquo\;s Fresh Air and Pia no Jazz.\nSince the release of her Alligator debut Presumed Innocent\, Bal l has received more popular and critical acclaim than ever before. Billboa rd called the CD &ldquo\;A stellar collection.&rdquo\; So Many Rivers\, he r 2003 follow-up\, continued the trend. Billboard again fueled the excitem ent\, saying\, &ldquo\;Ball is a consummate pro - a killer pianist\, a gre at singer and songwriter. Powerful. Righteous.&rdquo\; Live! Down The Road followed in 2005 with equally impressive praise across the board. The New Orleans Times Picayune said simply\, &ldquo\;Bayou boogie has a queen and her name is Marcia Ball.&rdquo\;\nOver the last few years\, Ball has been the subject of feature stories in magazines across the country\, includin g USA Today\, Keyboard\, DownBeat\, Billboard\, U.S. News &\; World Rep ort and in newpapers from coast to coast. Ball performed on National Publi c Radio&rsquo\;s A Prairie Home Companion\, World Cafe and Whad&rsquo\;Ya Know?\, Public Radio International&rsquo\;s Studio 360\, the nationally sy ndicated Mitch Albom Show\, and the PBS-televised version of Mountain Stag e. Ball was featured on CNN in 2002\, and in February\, 2003\, she joined her friends The Hackberry Ramblers on NBC television&rsquo\;s Today Show. She was featured on the covers of The Austin Chronicle as well as Blues Re vue magazine and even appeared in Piano Blues\, the film directed by Clint Eastwood included in Martin Scorsese&rsquo\;s The Blues series which aire d on PBS television nationwide in Fall\, 2003. Since then\, appearances on Austin City Limits and the Late Show With David Letterman with The New Or leans Social Club not only reached millions of people\, but helped to bene fit victims of Hurricane Katrina. She performs on A Prairie Home Companion again in 2008.\nNow\, with Peace\, Love &\; BBQ and a long list of hig h profile tour dates\, Ball will bring her blend of Texas roadhouse boogie and Louisiana swamp blues to fans everywhere. Radio and critics continue to sing her praises. No Depression says\, &ldquo\;Ball takes her Louisiana R&\;B and soul from a stomp to the swamp and back. [She brings] danceh all power and majesty and no small amount of sly humor. Her hard-rocking\, relentlessly rolling piano and heart-on-sleeve vocals don&rsquo\;t take m uch of a breather. Relentless tunefulness and finely-honed storytelling ma ke for a truly enjoyable ride.&rdquo\; With her new CD and her endless tou ring\, Marcia Ball invites all her fans to ride with her as she spreads pe ace and love - and enjoys plenty of BBQ - all across the world. DTSTART:20090904T000000 DTEND:20090904T000000 DURATION:PT3H LOCATION:Oakland SUMMARY:Marcia Ball END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR