Rory Block Albums (21)
'The Lady and Mr. Johnson'
Release Date 1/1/2006
Tracks 13
Label Ryko/Wea
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What The Critics Say
On Rory Block's masterpiece concept album, The Lady and Mr. Johnson, it becomes obvious that she and her guitar are one in the same. The two use each other and live through one another. Block's adoration for the blues has allowed her to explore its various sides, while always remaining true to the sound of her blues idols. Since she first became enthralled with the music of Robert Johnson, sometime around 1964, she had the goal of releasing an album of her covering select songs by the King of Delta Blues -- and 42 years later, boy, did she ever do it. After years of studying and perfecting Johnson's style, Block refers to the album as her Ph.D. The Lady and Mr. Johnson features Block at her Delta blues best. The entire album, save for a gospel choir intro on the first track, is entirely Block. It's just a woman, her voice, and her guitar. Block's guitar playing is impeccable, almost unbelievable as she has completely nailed Johnson's technique -- adding a little 21st century edge to it without taking away from the original music's raw beauty. As with any cover album, certain songs work better for Block than others. Possibly the album's best track, for both its neck-chilling slide intro and Block's soulful vocals, is "Last Fair Deal Gone Down," and the same goes for "Come in My Kitchen." Until the winter of 2006, just months before Block released The Lady and Mr. Johnson, she had thought that Johnson had no living relatives, but had often desired to find any if they had existed. Turns out, he has a large family living in Mississippi, including his son. Block phoned the family and arranged a meeting. The album's artwork largely consists of various photos of Block with Johnson's son, grandson, and great grandson. The Lady and Mr. Johnson is a flawless album, easily one of the few solid Delta blues releases by any artist in recent years, and could easily turn out to be Block's leading pride and joy of her entire career. ~ Megan Frye, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Bottom line: there's nobody like Rory Block. For the past 30 years she has taken the blues and revered, studied, interpreted, lived, stretched, remade, and returned to them in all their stark simplicity, all the while planting them in her soul and grafting them onto herself like a skin. Rory Block is the blues. From the Dust, her second offering for the TelArc label, is a gritty, in-the-cut, inspired acoustic collection that showcases Block's exemplary skills as a guitarist, songwriter, and yes, singer. In listening to Block's own songs here, one can hear the actual historical blues tradition write itself into the new century. Block's own songs stack up tight against Charley Patton's "High Water Everywhere," Muddy Waters' "I Be Bound," and even Robert Johnson's classic "Stones in My Passway." She doesn't need to write reverentially or referentially because she has the lyrical, compositional, and spiritual fortitude to bring the murky stuff up and out it to the listener unfiltered. The brief, ringing slide run that introduces the title track is the opening of a door. "From the Dust" is a manifesto, a foot-stomping testament to Block's pedigree through the grit of human experience, heartbreak, and transcendence. The rollicking open-tuned gospel-blues of "One Way Down" offers a candid view of personal surrender. "David Had the Blues," with multi-tracked backing vocals and finger popping by Block, is what Rev. Gary Davis might have sounded like if he had been born a woman in the mid-20th century. The three covers all come sequentially in the middle of the set, almost as a suite. In the grain of Block's voice and dynamite playing one can hear the ghosts of the tradition whispering, very much alive in the heart of the heart of the country blues, seeking to impart their cautionary difficult truths to yet another generation. "Dry Spell," with its killer bottleneck work, is a sultry moaner, while "Fargo Baby" spits and sputters, riding the rail of its bassline like a train. The sheer spooky haunt of "Remember"'s intro transforms itself into a paean of acceptance and is one of the most affirming gospel tunes to come out of the genre since the 1950s. The disc whispers to a close with "Unprecedented Quiet," a stirring, gently moving instrumental that underscores the emotional range of all that has transpired here. From the Dust is impure blues poetry by one of the music's few living legends. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
'Rory Block in Concert'
Release Date 1/1/2004
Tracks 15
Label Homespun Video
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What The Critics Say
While Rory Block had been a remarkably consistent artist over the course of 30 years, if all it took was for her to leave Rounder Records to make a record like Last Fair Deal, one has to wonder why she didn't do it ages ago. Block is one of the most restless and in-the-field artists in the history of contemporary blues. She has continually dug deeper into the muck and the mire of not only the blues but her personal life, emotionally, spiritually, amorously, and psychically, to bring out what is integral to the creation -- not re-creation -- of blues music. She has suffered, endured, and continued to make music that is not only compelling, but necessary for any accurate understanding of the cultural history of the blues tradition because she is perhaps the living female embodiment of it. Last Fair Deal is a record stripped of artifice or niceties. It is raw, feral, tender, sacred, sinful, lusty, and enlightening. On this recording, Block has assembled a collection of songs -- written, re-arranged, and restored -- that showcases the guitar as an extension of her physical and spiritual body. She writes in the liner notes that this is her tribute to the instrument that has seen her through the darkness, that she wanted the guitar to be an orchestra on its own. She succeeds in diamonds. Beginning with "Gone Again," and its opening roar of a Harley Davidson and her whip-smart slide playing becoming the timbre of the grain in her voice, the guitar becomes the poem, and her voice underlines, accents, and punctuates it. Block's agility and extension of blues form here is astonishing. Her slide work is effortless; it flies, stings, and stings. "Sookie Sookie" is a slide blues that rings with the same tension that John Fahey's best work did, but Block is more aggressive; she bends herself to the guitar's will. The lyrics delve deep into anger, brokenness, and the seeming impossibility of enduring love. But it is on Son House's "County Farm Blues," "Amazing Grace," and Robert Johnson's "Last Fair Deal Gone Down" and "Traveling Riverside Blues" that Block rips the lid off the blues: she hallows the tradition but turns it back on itself in her playing. Here are movements she's never made with her long, lithe hands on that neck. Digging deep into right-hand technique and allowing her left to sing at will, Block brings the archaic primitivism of the Delta into the 21st century like riding an unbroken horse -- but she leaves the wildness in. Block's own songs -- whether they be blues tunes such as gospel songs such as "Declare," folk songs such as "Cry Out Loud" or "Two Places at Table," combinations of virtually everything, such as "Awesome Love" -- stand as tall and tough as she does. They testify to the ferocity of a love so profound it can only be expressed as tenderness by a broken heart. Ultimately, this is the finest album of Block's long career, and yet it feels like a signpost of things to come. Last Fair Deal is potent, profound, medicine. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
After listening to the opening track of I'm Every Woman, one might be inclined to expect 45 minutes of acoustic blues to follow. "Guitar Ditty" features no more than a girl and her guitar with a great big sound. It's quite surprising, then, when Rory Block cuts loose on the title cut, a pastiche of slide guitar, disco beat, and funky '70s orchestra. Clearly, the listener isn't in the Delta anymore. Indeed, Block pretty much keeps her guitar in the corner of the studio for most of the album, trading her deep blues for a healthy dose of soul, a bit of gospel, and few other odds and ends. It's probably impossible to compare I'm Every Woman to Confessions of a Blues Singer, Block's 1998 recording. One features songs by Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton, and Blind Willie McTell; the other, by Al Green and Ashford-Simpson. One maintains a fairly straightforward production, centering on acoustic guitar and vocals; the other jumps from guitar ditties to a cappella gospel to full-tilt boogie. Kelly Joe Phelps lends his vocals and a nice bit of guitar to "Pretty Polly," while Annie Raines and Paul Rishell help out on a stirring vocal version of "Rock Island Line." Block also successfully tackles Bonnie Raitt/Toni Price territory with the vibrant "I Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody's Home." While there are several memorable moments on I'm Every Woman, the overall approach seems more scattershot than eclectic, and will confuse and perhaps anger Block's fans. ~ Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr., All Music Guide
'Confessions of a Blues Singer'
Release Date 10/6/1998
Tracks 12
Label Rounder
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What The Critics Say
Those who adore Block's work as a preservationist in reinterpreting classic Delta blues from the '20s and '30s will delight in this outing, another return to her solo acoustic roots. Block wanted to approach this album as an attempt to capture the spirit of the one-take recordings of the classic bluesmen, settling for rough mixes and not worrying about endings and other modern-day recording niceties. The result is an album that's the loosest of her career and one that's squarely focused on her guitar and vocals. Breaking things up are guest appearances from Bonnie Raitt playing slide on "Rambling On My Mind" and her son Jordan Block Valdina on piano and vocals on "I Am In the Heavenly Way" and "Long Way From Home." Bringing a sense of full circle to the project are the two originals that Block chooses to close the album with. Both "Mother Marian" (a tribute to mentor Marian Van Ness) and the autobiographical "Life Song" feature a full band behind her poignant lyrics. Other highlights include takes on Charlie Patton's "Bo Weavil Blues," Furry Lewis' "Kassie Lee," Robert Johnson's "If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day" and Block's own "Silver Slide Moan." Far less overwrought than her usual offerings but still full of much inspired feeling, this is Block's most solid outing to date. ~ Cub Koda, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
After establishing her blues credentials with the traditional "Mississippi Bottom Blues," Rory Block turns to a set of original folk-rock songs on which she is joined by a band and such guests as David Lindley (who plays a guitar solo on "Pictures of You") and Mary Chapin Carpenter (who sings harmony on "You Didn't Mind"). Block brings a blues simplicity and directness to her music and lyrics, which helps ease her transition from folk-blues interpreter to folk-rock singer/songwriter. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
'Color Me Wild: Inside Your Own Mind You Are Perfectly Free'
Release Date 12/5/1995
Tracks 14
Label Alacazam!/Alcazar
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What The Critics Say
There's a wonderful sense of communication with children, particularly mid-childhood. Ages four to five. ~ Bob Hinkle, All Music Guide
