An Orange native is lined up to replace King George January 1. The Texas Legislature has declared that bluesy, piano-playing Marcia Ball will be the Official State Musician for 2018. The current state musician is George Strait.
Ball was born in Orange in 1949 at the old city hospital where the Shangri La parking lot is today. Though she was born here, she grew up in nearby Vinton, Louisiana, across the Sabine. She moved to Austin in 1970.
Since then she has gained a worldwide fan base for singing and playing keyboard. Her style is a combination of rhythm and blues, a bit of rock with a touch of jazz and old-fashioned boogie-woogie.
The Texas Legislature began naming a yearly state musician beginning in 2003. Previous honorees have included Willie Nelson, Billy Gibbons, Lyle Lovett and Jimmie Vaughn.
Ball has played twice for music events sponsored by the city of Orange before the Riverfront Pavilion opened. She has been nominated five times for a Grammy Award and has won 10 Blues Music Awards. She is also in the Austin Music Hall of Fame, the Gulf Coast Music Hall of Fame and the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
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