Marcia Ball is a reigning diva in the Texas music scene. Marcia rules! And she rocks in a soulful dress when she plays raucous, piano-based Dixie R&B on her collection of 88 keys. Nothing compares to an evening with this songwriter who delivers a lovesong with passion and a goodbye song with nerve. She embodies style, talent and charisma in a way that can guide all women. She is a woman's woman, a man's woman, a songwriter to draw to and a performer who has a loyal fan base all over the world. Yep, I love Marcia Ball!

She will be performing at Casbeers in San Antonio on November 8, at 9:30 p.m. Located at 1719 Blanco, this venue is known for a great music scene. Marcia Ball has three decades of performing behind her. Her new album, "So Many Rivers," contains 14 songs with six Ball originals. All are "fueled by her mastery of two-fisted piano playing, swaggering rock and sweet Southern soul," says Marc Lipton, her publicist at Alligator Records. Alligator is known for "Houserocking" music, and Marcia rocks the house with the best.

She was born in Orange, Texas, in 1949, and discovered the blues at age thirteen, listening to Irma Thomas. Marcia graduated from college in Louisiana then headed to the west coast, her car breaking down in Austin. There she founded Frida and the Firedogs, becoming part of the Cosmic Cowboy Revolution. She also discovered Professor Longhair and delved deeply into the music of the great New Orleans piano players.

Her recording career began in 1978 with an album on Capitol Records. She released six critically acclaimed recordings with Rounder Records. In 1990 she collaborated with two more divas of Texas music, Lou Ann Barton and Angela Strehli, to record "Dreams Come True" on Antone's label.

At the end of 1998 she joined worked on "three divas of the blues" project for Rounder Records, this time with Tracy Nelson and Irma Thomas. "Sing It" was released in 1998, and she received the W.C. Handy Blues Award for Contemporary Female Vocalist of the year (and has been nominated every year since).

She joined Alligator Records in 2001, releasing "Presumed Innocent." Fortune magazine declared, "Marcia Ball is one of the treasure of Austin." I know she is one of the great treasures of the American music scene.
I spent a day with her last Christmas, watching her put up lights in her Austin home, listening to the banter she evokes with husband and artist, Gordon Fowler. I was charmed by the day and intrigued by our conversation. She is an important chapter in my first book on Texas songwriters and will be the leading chapter in my next book on women in Texas music. Yes, I see her as a central figure in all that comes out of Texas.

So does Johnny Nicholas. She will also be performing on November 15 in the Pioneer Pavilion in Fredericksburg at the Johnny Nicholas All Star Big Band Bash. Others on the bill include Stephen Bruton, who also produced Marcia's new album, Jimmie Vaughan (in a rare Hill Country appearance), Cindy Cashdollar, Joel Guzman, Joe King Carrasco, Floyd Domino, Al Gomez, Danny Levin and more. Tickets are available at Wolfmueller's in Kerrville. Check out their stand of great Texas music books while you are in there. Nothing like a family-owned business! Sandy and Jon Wolfmueller have created a niche for used books and records as well as a center for Texana here in the Hill Country. And Kinky Friedman, who is running for governor in 2006, called Wolfmueller's Books and Records "home base."

November is Native American Heritage Month. The featured performer at the November 5 Texas Music Coffeehouse, Patricia Vonne, is one of 13 children in a Hispanic family in San Antonio, and she carries some Cherokee blood. I'll be reading a piece by Leonard Peltier, a Sioux Indian indicted for murder at Pine Ridge in the 70's, a man still serving a sentence after all evidence has been proven false. Hm. Robert Redford directed a thought-provoking film called "Incident at Oglala." Peter Mathiessen, after years of research, wrote IN THE SPIRIT OF CRAZY HORSE about the entire case.

Free Leonard and down the road.