Marcia Ball Receives Grammy Award Nomination For 2008 Release, Peace, Love & BBQ

Texas-born, Louisiana-raised pianist/ vocalist/ songwriter Marcia Ball has received a 2008 Grammy Award nomination for her critically acclaimed CD, PEACE, LOVE & BBQ. This is Ball’s fourth release for Alligator Records and the third to receive a Grammy Award nomination. The winners of the 51st Grammy Awards will be announced on February 8. The other nominees in the Contemporary Blues category are Solomon Burke, Dr. John, Taj Mahal, and Irma Thomas.

Over the course of her career, Ball’s infectious, intelligent and deeply emotional songs have won her a large and loyal fan base all over the world. Ball won two 2004 Blues Music Awards for “Contemporary Blues Album Of The Year” for her previous studio album, the Grammy-nominated, SO MANY RIVERS, as well as the award for “Contemporary Female Blues Artist Of The Year.” And in 2005, 2006 and 2007, the Blues Music Awards honored Ball as the “Piano Player Of The Year.” She was also voted “Most Outstanding Musician” in the 2007 Living Blues Readers’ Poll. Produced by Stephen Bruton, PEACE, LOVE & BBQ finds Marcia Ball at a creative peak. She wrote or co-wrote eight of the thirteen songs on the CD, ranging from intense soul ballads to can’t-sit-still party songs to straight-from-the-heart lyrical storytelling. With guests Dr. John, Wayne Toups, Tracy Nelson and Terrance Simien lending! a hand, the music moves effortlessly through a range of emotions, so the listener may be dancing one minute and be deeply moved the next.