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Don’t be deceived. Her 60th birthday on March 20th isn’t the biggest celebration in 2009. Nor is it the Valentine’s weekend early birthday party she organized, gathering friends and co-collaborators for five, capacity-filled, star-studded shows. Rather, it’s having a new President in the White House, which has this Austin icon, bandleader, songwriter and performer all fired-up and ready to look forward. “I’d been angry for the last eight years,” says Marcia Ball, and none more so than following Hurricane Katrina.
“She’s raised tens of thousands of dollars to help Katrina victims with her music,” says Ball’s husband Gordon Fowler. Each CD sold by the Marcia Ball Band contributes to the NOLA Relief fund she established. New Orleans is the Marcia Ball Band’s musical home, with Ball playing her first New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 1978. The roots of their music are in the city, explains Don Bennett, who has played with Ball’s band for 27 years. “We owe the people of New Orleans a debt of gratitude.”
The aftermath of Katrina caused Ball – who grew up on the Louisiana coast – such emotional distress that she lost her voice, albeit figuratively. However, it did not prevent her well-known generosity and take-charge personality from stepping up to the challenge. “A group of us put on a fundraiser after Katrina, and put the money into a fund called NOLA Relief,” she explains. That fund is still alive, with Ball recently releasing NOLA funds to benefit Hurricane Ike victims. And that’s not the end of Ball’s generosity and compassion. Like so many of her cohorts, Ball frequently plays benefit concerts in Austin and beyond; in fact, her February birthday weekend extravaganza was part birthday and part fundraiser for two nonprofits: the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians (HAAM) and Sweet Home New Orleans. Marcia Ball just wants people to be done right by. Which is why – despite the change in administration – which she wholeheartedly supports – she is keeping her Bush-era “Bring Our Troops Home” sign in her yard. “Until they’re home,” she says simply.
In fact, this is a simple tale. It’s the tale of a young girl from Louisiana who loved her family and her home, but who nonetheless left them, and made a name for herself as Queen of the Honkytonks. Yet, it’s also the story of a hardworking businesswoman who has carved out her own market; performed throughout North America (including the White House), in Europe and Australia; been recognized multiple times by her peers in the music business; recorded 13 albums; and through all that, balanced raising three kids and nurturing a 25-year marriage. And never forgotten her Cajun roots.
Marcia Ellen Mouton, the middle sibling to brothers Mike and Van, grew up in Vinton, LA (although she was born across the state line in Texas). Part of a close-knit family, by age five, she was taking piano lessons, encouraged by her piano-playing grandmother Inez Richard and aunt, Meredith Robins. “When I was growing up, the biggest stars were Fats Domino, and Jerry Lee, Little Richard and Ray Charles. All piano players. So it was a good time to be a piano player,” says Ball.
Hope and Millard Mouton wanted only the best for their tall, slender, raven-haired daughter, and urged her to go off to college. In 1966 she started at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, turning 18 the spring of her freshman year. “Well, at LSU I had no idea what I was going to do,” recalls Ball. She majored in marketing her first semester. “I thought it made you a buyer for a department store or something. It turned out that business administration just bored me to tears.” (Despite her early aversion, today Ball is a savvy businesswoman.) Next semester she switched to journalism. In the third, to English; and then came 1968. Hippies were everywhere. Ball dropped out, headed to New Orleans and got in a band. “If you were a hippie and you had a little folk guitar and had written a song because your heart was broken, next step is you joined a band. So I did.”
Yet she still didn’t dream that music could be her career. Until the Rolling Stones. “They were these five scruffy guys. Playing American Blues. We all thought, ‘Well, hell. If they can do it, we can do it.’ I think that was the birth of the garage band,” says Ball. It was certainly the birth of her musical ambitions.
At age 20 Ball was married. She and her husband moved to Austin, which with its reputation as one of the most liberal communities was a mecca for artists of all kinds. Working a day job at The University of Texas library, Ball joined the much acclaimed Freda and the Firedogs, who played progressive country and had a regular Sunday night gig at Austin’s Split Rail. “The Firedogs established me here, and allowed me to quit my day job,” says Ball. (Her former college roommate Marguarette “Margie” Pousson maintains Ball didn’t revert back to Mouton when she later divorced because she’d worked so hard during the Firedogs days to convince people her name was Marcia, and not Freda.) When the Firedogs split, Ball joined yet another country band and only when she got pregnant, took the decisive step toward the music of her roots, the music of her icon Irma Thomas, and the blues-singing, piano-playing which Marcia Ball is known for today. “I knew that if I was going to call my own shots I had to start my own band. That was 1975.” Looking at old photos, it’s fascinating to see her develop from shy country hippie girl to the exuberant focal point of today’s Marcia Ball Band, kicking up her legs, her octave-spanning fingers pounding out sets in front of thousands of people. With her endearing honesty, Ball admits, “It took me a long time to believe I could front the band.” She’s honed her skills through the years. Now she’s able to – in fact, has to – multitask on stage. “While I’m concentrating on delivering the message of the song, I’m already thinking about the next one … or who I forgot to put on the guest list!”
Today, Marcia Ball likes the simple things in life: spending time with her family, friends and dogs. Eating good Mexican food. And still playing music. Longtime band member Don Bennett says Ball is the only person he’s ever met who enjoys playing music more than he does. She prefers to perform, she says, and finds the writing hard. Her technique is to constantly be writing things down, she explains. Hooks, words, lyrics. They’re all gathered together – reminiscent of her self-styled “herding” method of packing. Until finally, the deadline approaches, or, “Sometimes an event occurs that makes it necessary to comment, or to express myself.”
She’s had concerns in the past about the topics she writes about. Is she there to entertain or inform? It’s like walking a tightrope. “I’m not like the folk singers – people want me to make them dance. They want to dance their blues away.” However, she’s learned that she can do both. People want to be touched, she says. “People want to dance and they want to be entertained. But if you want them to remember you, and really love you, make ‘em cry.” And Marcia Ball can make ‘em cry.
Gordon Fowler has been married to Ball for 25 years. “She has a graciousness about her – and the older she gets, the more it shows,” says Fowler, the former owner of one of Austin’s most popular live music venues, La Zona Rosa. “Marcia has built an audience one person at a time,” adds Fowler, who has seen her spend hours after her show talking to fans. With her busy tour calendar, Ball spends about one-third to half of her time on the road, he says. That’s a lot of time apart for a couple – and one that demands trust on both sides. Fowler is an accomplished painter but also a musician (his band, the Sunset Valley Boys, has a regular Friday night gig at Evangeline’s on Brodie Lane), who understands the vagaries of the music business, so there’s no feeling of resentment from either one on Ball’s nomadic career choice. Both are blessed with a sense of humor that easily turns ironic and self-deprecating, on this as much as any other topic, however Fowler’s genuine when he says they limit the length of time they’re apart. “We have a 14-day rule, after that we start getting antsy.” Of course, when the band heads to a destination like London, Fowler can always opt to go along.
Ball loves to travel. And none more so than when the couple’s blended family included three live-in teenagers. “People asked how I could travel then,” she recalls. “I told them, ‘Why do you think I travel?’” Joking aside, Ball credits Fowler for the support he provided her career in the years he played “Mr. Mom.” After their 1983 marriage, Luke (Ball’s son), Jeb and Brandy (Fowler’s two youngest children) lived with the couple (Fowler’s daughter Tracy was already grown). “The other gift to me was that our kids were good!” says Ball of the support she received as she began to ramp-up her touring schedule as the kids grew older. “I didn’t have to stay home because of teenage crises.”
The couple met when Ball was a single mother. Native Austinite Fowler had been watching her on the live music scene for some time, without ever approaching her directly. Eventually, after matchmaking help from a mutual friend, a first date was arranged. Guessing that she would expect him to arrive in a pick-up truck, Fowler bought a Ferrari. “I just thought it would be kind of funny,” explains the former Marine and Vietnam vet, who ran the family business, selling his Dad Wick’s Two-Alarm Chili mix. The Ferrari was a success, less so the couple’s attire. After being refused dinner at the Hyatt Regency, the jeans-clad pair (remember, this was the Austin of 1983) ended up at Fonda San Miguel, “and talked about our kids all night,” recalls Fowler. The following Friday, Ball played the Women’s Democratic Caucus, and Fowler sat between Ann Richards and Molly Ivins. “They were big Marcia Ball fans,” he says. By Saturday afternoon, Ball was in Shreveport with her band, when Fowler’s phone rang. “She told me that she missed me,” recalls Fowler. “Later she said she felt so stupid saying that.” Stupid or not, Ball’s words spurred Fowler into action. By the time she was taking her second break during that evening’s gig, Fowler was standing by the stage – having raced downtown in Austin to buy a new jacket, then spent $1,700 on charter flights. The couple has been together ever since. “I sold the Ferrari six months later, lost $9,000 and it was worth every nickel,” says Fowler. “And the funny thing is that Marcia wouldn’t have cared what I picked her up in.”
Ball and Fowler still live in the Spanish-style corner lot home in the shabby-chic South Lamar neighborhood, which their blended family moved to after they married. They love to cook at home. Fowler’s the cook – “and a good one,” says Ball. When they’ve got company, and dinner is finished, “I love nothing more than to pull out the cards or the dominoes,” says Ball. “We’re still gonna talk, but let’s have a game.” Scrabble’s a family favorite – as a self-confessed semi-addict, she also plays on the road. “We have Travel Scrabble in the van. And now on our Blackberries.”
They remodeled the spacious garage apartment at the back of the lot into their workspace, which today holds two studios (Fowler, the painter, has the upstairs loft studio) and office space. Ball employs an indispensable office manager to help run the business. Any successful musician these days has to be as much businesswoman as musician, explains Ball. “Aside from the music, there’s personnel, finances, logistics.” While there’s much she’s learned to delegate, there’s one she just can’t let go. “I’m always buying plane tickets. I can’t delegate it because it requires quite a bit of my imagination to figure out how we need to do the things I’ve committed us to.” Her infectious laugh surfaces as she recalls past “goofy stuff. Like, Charleston, Rhode Island to Detroit, to Sausalito, California … in consecutive days. Requiring me to change into my gig dress on the Richmond Bridge, on the way from Oakland airport. In the front seat of a mini-van.” While initially adamant that she’s not undergone great hardships as a touring musician, Ball finally does admit the life might not suit all comers, and that her emotional make-up plays a large part in her resilience to a life where you rarely get adjusted to being home. Of course, this is all said accompanied by bouts of her signature deep-throated laughter. “It’s strenuous. Which could be like saying, ‘in childbirth you’re going to feel a little pressure’.” She pauses. “To some people, what we do would be hellish.”
Ball’s quick to reel off a list of other women who are combining the roles of entrepreneur, musician and mother. It’s a give-and-take, she says, between family and career. What did she give up? “Perhaps, the single-minded pursuit of career … But truly, I don’t feel like I gave that up. I think I have succeeded on a level commensurate with my ability and my nature.” Her family is essential to her, she says, and while she is proud of her kids, “I don’t take credit for them.” She’s always been grateful for the attitude of her own parents. While they continued to encourage her to return to college after she dropped out of LSU, they also supported her music. One night, early in her career, “I looked up in the middle of Help Me Make It Through the Night, and Mom and Daddy danced by the stage. They were always there. And they always encouraged me. And nobody was ever prouder.”
It’s early January in a damp, chilly Austin. A photo shoot in her studio has Ball in and out of outfits. She’s tall, beautiful and elegant in a black halter-neck gown and her high heels. Yet she chats with ease, all part of the tremendous charm and mass appeal of this four-time Grammy nominated musician.
Who would she like to thank for her success? “It’s been an incredible journey which has taken me around the world. I thank my family for being here and letting me go there,” she says with a catch in her voice. As she reflects on the myriad of friends, family and fellow musicians who have helped her over the years, Ball adds. “This is not a solitary journey.” She glances over at the junior baby grand and stool, which nestle under her own piano in the studio. She’s looking forward to the time that grandson Linc will play alongside her in the studio – he’s already playing on the toy piano she keeps in the house for his visits. Yes, 2009 is a year for looking forward.
More Info:
For a current tour calendar:
www.marciaball.com
On The Ball
Her Tallness Spills the (Red) Beans
Every morning: I count my blessings.
Packing: It expands to take all the time you will allow it.
Great junking find: The rocking horse that sits in her studio waiting for 19-month-old grandson Linc (short for Lincoln) to grow into. “I truly got that off of a trash pile in my hometown – my mother and I were taking a ride out to look at the irises that bloom along the old highway that goes through the swamps … I took it to the carwash, blasted it, and cleaned the tail and mane with hot steamy water and soap, then brought it back and painted it. I love junking!”
Making it in music: Stay in school; don’t think that success is right around the corner. Think carefully about how you plan to measure your success; and pace yourself.
Fan stuff: I know a guy who has my face tattooed on his arm. I don’t sign anything below the waist. And yes, some fans ask.
Books: For Christmas I got The Nine – it’s about the Supreme Court Justices. I took a biography of Edna St. Vincent Millay on Delbert’s Sandy Beaches cruise in January. I love Austin authors: Sarah Bird, Larry Wright and Stephen Harrigan, who I know from our work at CAST, Capital Area Statues. Oh – and I love mysteries.
Inspired by: Musician Irma Thomas; Hope Mouton – my mom was the rock our family was built on. She gave me my love of reading; and my sense of adventure and love of travel, even though she was a stay-at-home mom in small town Louisiana. She also gave me my skinny genes; and her recipe for smothered pork chops.
Learning from others: I watch other musicians, and I learn something from every performance I see. Sometimes it’s what to do, and sometimes it’s what not to do.
On music: The power of music is probably least appreciated by musicians. The people who get up in the morning and put on music, clean their houses to music, exercise to music; it helps them through their sad times and enhances their happy times. That’s who appreciates music.
Favorites: Exercise: Pilates. Restaurant: Sazon, a wonderful interior Mexican restaurant in our neighborhood. Food: I’m Cajun, so I’ll eat anything, but when I get home I am ready for Mexican food. Austin clubs: Antone’s, Continental Club, Saxon Pub, MoMo’s to see Warren Hood.
What Others Say …
Margie Pousson, Ball’s former college roommate, lives in Arkansas yet regularly travels to see her long-time friend perform; and has accompanied Ball on many all-music cruises, including the Legendary Blues Cruise and Delbert McClinton’s Sandy Beaches Cruise.
“She’s grown so much in her performing, her writing and her business abilities. Yet she’s still the same Marcia.”
“When I travel with her she makes every trip an adventure.”
“She’s great at keeping me in touch with our friends around the country when she travels.”
“She is generous and compassionate, and takes that extra step.”
“I love watching her fans watch her. Watching them enjoy and interact, sharing one-on-one moments.”
Favorite song: “Just thinking of Watermelon Time (from Ball’s Grammy-nominated latest release, Peace, Love & BBQ) makes my feet tap.”
Gordon Fowler, Ball’s husband of 25 years:
“She loves children. My children consider her as much a mother as their real mother; and she has been wonderful with them … “She knows more songs, jokes and limericks than anybody I’ve ever known.”
“She’s real demanding on herself.”
“Everyone loves to play with Marcia – she is a great bandleader.”
Favorite song: The Power of Love was written about me; I like Mama’s Cooking – but gee, all of them!
Don Bennett has played with the Marcia Ball band for 27 years.
“She is more enthusiastic than anybody else I have ever run across in this business. I really respect and admire that. She is not your average bandleader. She’s incredibly thoughtful.
Favorite song: Red Beans. “It’s the first song that we play every night, and I really like it because Marcia plays it so well.”