"Home Is Where the Music Is": A Celebration of Miss Lavelle White & CD Release

"From her hits in the 1950's and '60's on Houston's Duke records through her later residency as the house vocalist at Chicago's legendary Kingston Mines, to her comeback over the last decase on Antone's Records, Miss Lavelle has always been an avatar of "true blues" and a class act." --Portland Oregonian
White was born in Amite City, Louisiana, United States, the daughter of sharecropper parents.

She started to write poetry at the age of 12, which led her to song writing and singing gospel songs.… Show more White relocated to Houston, Texas, at the age of 15, and started to perform in that city's blues clubs with the guitarist Clarence Hollimon. Her break came when Johnny Copeland recommended her to Don Robey, the owner of the Duke and Peacock record labels.She was then billed as 'Miss La-Vell'. White recorded fourteen tracks, released as a number of singles on Duke, between 1958 and 1964.These included "If I Could Be with You," "Just Look at You Fool," "Stop These Teardrops," and "The Tide of Love." Several of her songs were self penned, a process of writing that has lasted most of her lifetime.Under the pseudonym of Deadric Malone, White also wrote Bobby Bland's "Lead Me On", which was a hit in 1960.She appeared in local revues up to the late 1960s.

She toured across the United States when her recording contract expired. In the 1960s White shared musical stages with many musicians including Bland, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Junior Parker, Aretha Franklin and Jerry Butler. White moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1978, where she appeared at various clubs and worked with Junior Wells, Lonnie Brooks and Buddy Guy, before returning to Houston eight years later. White was later voted Houston's Blues Artist Of The Year] She relocated again and became a regular performer around the Austin, Texas area, including a residency at Antone's.

However, her debut album was not released until 1994, when Miss Lavelle was issued on the Antone's label. It was her first recording for almost 30 years. White appeared at the San Francisco Blues Festival in 1995. She has also performed at the Houston International Festival. Her second album was It Haven't Been Easy (1997). Both albums featured guitar work from her former performing colleague, Clarence Hollimon. The same year, White appeared with Delbert McClinton on the television program, Austin City Limits. Her third album, Into the Mystic, was released in 2003.

She has been nominated four times for a Blues Music Award, and in 2006 was inducted into the Texas Music Hall of Fame. The same year her ensemble was voted the Best Blues Band in The Austin Chronicle Music Awards.
White recently appeared at the Ponderosa Stomp music festival.

Texas-born, Louisiana-raised pianist/vocalist/songwriter Marcia Ball's new CD, Roadside Attractions mixes equal parts simmering soul fervor and rollicking Crescent City piano. Over the course of her 30-year career, Ball's infectious, intelligent and deeply emotional songs have won her a loud and loyal fan base. Roadside Attractions is Ball's fifth release for Alligator, and twelfth overall. Three of her previous four CDs have received Grammy nominations. Ball has also collected seven Blues Music Awards since 2001, including the 2009 "Pinetop Perkins Piano Player Of The Year" award, and was voted "Female Blues Artist Of The Year" and "Most Outstanding Musician--Piano" in the 2009 Living Blues Readers' Poll. Ball was inducted into the Gulf Coast Music Hall of Fame in 2010. Recording in Austin and in Nashville, and produced by famed songwriter, musician and producer Gary Nicholson (Delbert McClinton, Wynonna Judd, T. Graham Brown), Roadside Attractions finds Marcia Ball at a creative peak. Ball wrote or co-wrote every song -- something she had never done over the course of her forty-year career. Throughout the proceedings, her stellar musicians add power and nuance to the music, perfectly complementing Ball's expert piano playing, slice-of-life lyrics and melodic, storytelling vocals. Born in Orange, Texas in 1949 to a family whose female members all played piano, Ball grew up in the small town of Vinton, Louisiana, right across the border from Texas. She began taking piano lessons at age five, playing old Tin Pan Alley tunes from her grandmother's collection. From her aunt, Marcia heard more modern and popular music. But it wasn't until she was 13 that Marcia discovered the power of soul music. One day in 1962, she sat amazed while Irma Thomas delivered the most spirited performance the young teenager had ever seen. In 1970, Ball set out for San Francisco. Her car broke down in Austin, and while waiting for repairs she fell in love with the city and decided to stay. It wasn't long before she was performing in the city's clubs with a progressive country band called Freda And The Firedogs, while beginning to perfect her songwriting skills. It was around this time that she delved deeply into the music of the great New Orleans piano players, especially Professor Longhair. "Once I found out about Professor Longhair," recalls Ball, "I knew I had found my direction." When the band broke up in 1974, Marcia launched her solo career, signing to Capitol Records and debuting with the country-rock album Circuit Queen in 1978. Discovering and honing her own sound, she released six critically acclaimed titles on the Rounder label during the 1980s and 1990s. Her recordings and performances received glowing reviews in major music publications, and Marcia was featured on leading television and radio programs, including Austin City Limits and NPR's Fresh Air and Piano Jazz. Since the release of her Alligator debut Presumed Innocent in 2001, Ball has received more popular and critical acclaim than ever before. 2003's So Many Rivers continued the push forward, with Billboard declaring, "Ball is a consummate pro -- a killer pianist, a great singer and songwriter. Powerful. Righteous." 2005's Live! Down The Road received equally impressive praise. The New Orleans Times-Picayune said simply, "Bayou boogie has a queen and her name is Marcia Ball." Billboard said, "Peace, Love BBQ is a welcome ray of sunshine. This is a potent batch of tunes, highlighted by Ball's keyboard mastery." Living the life she loves, Marcia has no plans of slowing down anytime soon. "Forty years of roadside attractions and the life of roaming 'round has never worn thin," she proudly says. "I love it when the wheels start rolling, when the band starts playing, when the crowds start dancing." Now, with Roadside Attractions and a long list of high profile tour dates, Ball will bring her blend of Texas roadhouse boogie and Louisiana swamp blues to fans around the globe. "What's not to love about Marcia Ball?" asked The Austin Chronicle. "Scrumptious, Southern-fried boogies, blues, and ballads with the infectious street beat of New Orleans at the core." Clearly, in whatever city she performs or wherever her songs play, there is no better roadside attraction than the foot-stomping, soul-stirring music of the great Marcia Ball.

The music of Shelley King draws from and blends a spectrum of roots music styles, but one word succinctly describes it: soulful. Be it R&B, folk, blues, country, bluegrass or rock - or combinations of and variations on those themes - she delivers the goods straight from the heart with a voice that's splendidly rich and warm and as big as all outdoors. Writing "a proverbial trunk full of instant hits and yet-unheard classics," as the Austin Chronicle describes her songs, King has risen from the vibrant music scene in the Texas capital city to charm fans across North America, Europe and Japan, win two Austin Music Awards, and be named the Texas State Musician for 2008.

And now she truly finds her sweet spot on her aptly titled new album Welcome Home. Recorded and co-produced with John Magnie, Tim Cook and Steve Amed

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