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Marcia Ball: Make 'Em Dance

Newber Machado
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Few piano players are as tall, glam and terrific as Marcia Ball. Born in Texas, raised in Louisiana and schooled in the dance halls and roadhouses of the Gulf South, Ball can't help but make you boogie woogie. That is, unless you wanna two-step. Or boogaloo. She does that too.

"If you can make 'em dance, money becomes a space problem."

Ball's songs are postcards of small town life in this region and the dilemmas that drive people to the choices they make.

This week she tells us about love songs and get-out-of-my-life songs that she's written for the same husband. And yes, she's still married. But Ball can make any rascal want to be a better man.

On a duet with Dr. John, he sounds downright gentlemanly. The song was his idea.

PLAYLIST

Some of the music from the broadcast is available for you to stream online or on your mobile device. Or, download a complete version [.pdf] and take it to your local record store.

Visit the Music Inside Out website for more from Gwen, including a look back on Jazz Fest 2013, and follow us on Twitter where we're @MusicInsideOut.

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Gwen Thompkins is a New Orleans native, NPR veteran and host of WWNO's Music Inside Out, where she brings to bear the knowledge and experience she amassed as senior editor of Weekend Edition, an East Africa correspondent, the holder of Nieman and Watson Fellowships, and as a longtime student of music from around the world.