BATH – Singer Marcia Ball will perform her blend of Texas blues, Louisiana R&B and Gulf Coast swamp pop at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18, in the Chocolate Church Arts Center.

She recorded her first full-length live album, “Live! Down the Road,” in 2004. The CD mixes songs from throughout her career, including longtime fan favorites like “La Ti Da” and “Crawfishin,'” as well as newer material like “Louella.”

Born in Orange, Texas, in 1949, to a family whose female members all played piano, Ball grew up in the small town of Vinton, La. She began taking piano lessons at age 5, playing old Tin Pan Alley tunes from her grandmother’s collection.

In 1970, Ball set out for San Francisco. But her car broke down in Austin, Texas. While waiting for repairs, she fell in love with Austin and decided to stay. It wasn’t long before Ball was performing in the city’s clubs with a country band called Freda and the Firedogs.

When the band broke up in 1974, Ball launched her solo career and debuted with the country album “Circuit Queen” in 1978. She released six critically acclaimed albums during the 1980s and 1990s. In 1990, Ball, collaborating with Angela Strehli and Lou Ann Barton, recorded the hugely successful “Dreams Come True.”

At the end of 1997, she finished work on a similar “three divas of the blues,” this time with Tracy Nelson and Irma Thomas. That album, “Sing It!,” was released in January 1998; it was nominated for both a Grammy and a Blues Music Award as “Best Contemporary Blues Album.”

Ball received the 1998 Blues Music Award for Contemporary Female Vocalist of the Year and for Best Blues Instrumentalist-Keyboards.

In 1999, Ball and her band appeared in the nationally televised public television special “In Performance at The White House” along with B.B. King and Della Reese. In recent years, she has released the CDs “Presumed Innocent” and “So Many Rivers.”

Tickets are $27 in advance, $29 at the door. They may be purchased by calling 442-8455 or going online to www.chocolatechurcharts.org. The Chocolate Church Arts Center is at 798 Washington St.