Mardi Gras came early to The Stone Church last Friday evening as singer/pianist Marcia Ball and her band lit up the place for two heated sets of New Orleans-style funk and swamp-rock. It was the perfect antidote to a cold and windy evening in Newmarket.

Mardi Gras came early to The Stone Church last Friday evening as singer/pianist Marcia Ball and her band lit up the place for two heated sets of New Orleans-style funk and swamp-rock. It was the perfect antidote to a cold and windy evening in Newmarket.

Ball and her bandmates played 18 tunes, a blend of up-tempo dance party music and slow, soulful ballads, before coming back out for a three-tune encore. And most of the crowd was up and dancing from the opener “You’re Good To Me” all the way to the end, a little over two hours later.

Ball is a commanding presence as she sits at her keyboard, one leg crossed over the other, launching into her energetic piano playing with authority. She is a practitioner of the rippling New Orleans boogie style of piano favored by Professor Longhair, Fats Domino and others, including a touch of Jerry Lee Lewis. But she also knows when to show restraint. She keeps her solos simple and tasteful. Her vocal work is powerful but not overbearing and she wrings deep emotion out of the ballads, most notably on the aching love song “Saint Gabriel,” which was one of the many highlights in the set.

The band is first rate. When I caught Ball at the 2003 Portsmouth Blues Festival, I felt she had a very good band with her, but this band was much better. Their energy and their overall sound was full and funky but also appropriately subtle and relaxed. Most notable was the fantastic saxophone work of Thad Scott, who played superb solo after superb solo throughout. Guitarist Pat Boyack played fairly well, but I sensed that he was holding back at times. Bassist Don Bennett and drummer Cory Keller were rock solid, yet flexible enough to cover all of the grooves effortlessly.

Mention should also be made of the terrific work of band sound technician Johnny Medina, who kept the sound clear and well balanced and, most importantly, at the right level of volume. It was an added pleasure to a night full of good music and good vibes courtesy of Long Tall Marcia Ball.