When Marcia Ball sings it’s a party. Her songs, spiced with bayou banter, zydeco, roadhouse boogie and rhythm and blues, leave you sure good times can be found ahead.

In conversation she’s a straight-talking woman, smart and savvy, whose long experience on stage and on the road hasn’t diminished her gift of feeling the joy in music.

The singer, songwriter and piano player’s bio notes that she was born in Texas, but Ball’s family truly hails from Louisiana — it’s just that the hospital was over the state line — and her musical tradition is very much connected to the piano boogie and rollick of swamp country. She has had a base in Austin, Texas, since 1970, and the hardworking ethic of a touring blues musician is also part of her tradition.

Her voice is soothing and sweet, with just enough roughness around the edges to keep your attention; The New York Times describes it as “husky” and “knowing.” She’s been called “the queen of blues piano,” in tribute to her musical talent and longevity. To hear her sing and play is to hear the reverberations of experience, in all of its ripples.

“The Tattooed Lady and the Alligator Man,” her latest, is Ball’s sixth album release for Alligator Records. She’ll be playing original songs from that and from throughout her praiseworthy musical career at Hawaii Theatre on Tuesday.

Those interested in the stories of a musician who’s stayed relevant over more than three decades in the game might also want to be at Aloha Tower Marketplace on Monday for a free appearance by Ball, sponsored by Hawaii Pacific University. Ball and Honolulu bandleader Erin Smith will talk about their experiences as “Women in Music,” with this writer as moderator.

BALL IS a nine-time Blues Music Awards winner. She released her first album in 1978, was added to the Gulf Coast Hall of Fame in 2010 and was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2012. After so many albums and so many songs, she continues to earn praise for her “mojo,” as AllMusic.com puts it.

When we talked, she had to double-check her calendar — she was meant to be in Maryland and Virginia for shows that were snowed out, just before arriving in the islands for shows on Hawaii island, Maui and Kauai (today), then Oahu. Joining her will be Johnny Nicholas, former keyboardist of Asleep at the Wheel, with his Hellbent Blues Band.

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival lineup had just been announced and included Ball on the schedule, with organizers calling her a “local living outside of town.”

While she has often appeared in the festival, she said, she never took an invitation for granted — particularly as Louisiana life and Louisiana music stretch back into her heritage for generations.

“I’m always thrilled every time that offer comes,” she said. “Particularly in this changing festival world, they’re often going for the bigger headliners — and when they do that, the funky bottom falls out. … So far, with Jazz Fest, they haven’t let too much of the traditional, the real stuff go.”

But what about the temptations of a festival? The boozing and carousing? Ball is also a regular on the “blues cruise” circuit, and we asked her about that.

“I don’t consider myself a thoroughly disciplined person,” she said, laughing. “All of those things that you can fall prey to in an environment — I do. … And when that’s all done, I go play music and then I listen to it.”

SHE’S STILL a fan, she said, and when other gifted musicians surround her, she takes it as inspiration. And whether she’s playing or listening, it’s the music that matters to her: “It’s not the size of the audience; it’s the quality of the music.”

It’s a gift she has — retaining an ability to appreciate music, to hear it as a fan, to delight.

Over the years of playing and hearing music, she’s also developed her own personal style.

Ball has long been an original, and she long ago decided that if she was going to make her mark, she would write her own music.

“The bottom line is that in order to break out of the everyday cover-band, local scene, you just have to write,” she said. “You have to create your own music. If you’re fortunate, it comes out as something that appeals to a good-sized audience.

“Mine, of course, is an amalgam of everything that I’ve loved and grew up with. I came up at a good time for music like mine, and in a good place.”

“Back in the rock ’n’ roll days, I could do some Janis Joplin, and did! And I’ve definitely been influenced by Etta James and Irma Thomas in the kind of songs that I sing. But by and large, I just am what I am, and I’ve just been doing what I could do,” she said.

“I’ve been fortunate to have chosen this kind of music, that is more up-tempo, rhythm-and-blues, soul-sounding, New Orleans-sounding, uplifting kind of music.

“People are often surprised when they come expecting to hear a blues band, because that’s the easy categorization. In reality that’s not what you get when you come to see us. In reality it’s more uplifting. I’ve just stumbled along, making what works for me.”