Marcia Ball’s Musical Gumbo

Marcia Ball, a longtime favorite at the Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett, returns for an 8 p.m. set on Wednesday.

Mary Keating Bruton

A musical gumbo of East Texas blues, zydeco, and Gulf Coast R&B

Jul. 16, 2015

Christopher Walsh

“Oh, man, a whole long time,” is how many years Marcia Ball has brought her musical gumbo of East Texas blues, zydeco, and Gulf Coast R&B to the Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett.

As the pianist and singer wound her way through New England last week en route to the South Fork, where she will take the stage on Wednesday at 8 p.m., she thought back to the few dozen gigs she has played both in Amagansett and at the now-defunct Talkhouse in South Beach, Miami, in the early 1990s. “It could easily be 20 years,” she said, recalling the cozy venue here prior to its mid-1990s expansion. “They were even smaller than small,” she said. “I wouldn’t call them large at this point. Their expansion didn’t essentially change that room.”

For a performer, the Talkhouse is “incredibly intimate,” she said, likening it to the Turning Point in Piermont, N.Y., and the Towne Crier, farther up the Hudson River in Beacon. “They get a great crowd,” she said. “It’s always been such a good place to play, and the crowd has always been very receptive. We’ve had some incredible shows there.”

Indeed, a fervent crowd of locals and summer visitors alike greeted Ms. Ball and her band at last summer’s performance, a full house moving to the uptempo, piano-driven party music. “We really do enjoy it, it’s dear to our hearts,” she said. “We love going out there.”

Ms. Ball promised a number of songs from her most recent Alligator Records release, “The Tattooed Lady and the Alligator Man,” a rollicking collection of vivid imagery born from personal observation. “I’m kind of an eavesdropper,” she said. “I listen to what I hear going on around me.” Songs on “The Tattooed Lady,” she said, reflect “things I see around me that are colorful and interesting.” The album, she agreed, “is very visual in a number of the songs. They’re fun to play, and we’ve really enjoyed incorporating the songs from that into our set.”

“The Tattooed Lady” will step aside for other selections from Ms. Ball’s long career as well, she said. “We are mixing everything up and going back to some of our favorite old stuff, letting people shout out what they want to hear, if they choose . . . our audiences are polite but not boring, by any means. They speak their minds.”

Tickets to Marcia Ball at the Stephen Talkhouse are $35 and $50.