Fifty-one year-old Marcia Ball, lives in Texas, plays piano and grew up singing in a household predominated by her sisters and mother who all played the piano. Ball began playing at age five and at fourteen she heard Irma Thomas and from then on she was hooked on the blues. She also got to play with Irma in one of two trio sessions. These recordings were nominated for a Grammy and WC Handy awards. Marcia’s Alligator Records debut (the ninth album of her career), Presumed Innocent features thirteen songs, including five written or co-written by Ball. The remaining songs are old R & B covers. On this CD Ball is joined by a host of friends including a great duet with Delbert McClinton,” on You Make It Hard” saxophonist Mark Kazanoff, trumpet man Wayne Jackson of the Memphis Horns adds some horns to “Count the Day’s” which I really enjoyed, Sonny Landreth, plays the slide guitar on “Fly on the Wall” which was the song I enjoyed most on this CD. Marcia does a boogie-woogie type jam on her original song “Louella.” The album was co-produced by Marcia Ball and Doyle Bramhall, who also plays some drums on the CD.