Birth of the Blues: Rory Block

Her initial record for Rounder, 1981's High Heeled Blues (produced by producer and performer John Sebastian) got Block her first national notice when it was hailed in Rolling Stone Magazine. The review practically glowed with accolades. "Some of the most singular and affecting Country Blues anyone, man or woman, black or white, old or young has cut in recent years …" Block through herself into an intense period of touring in support of the record, all the while still balancing her life with her two sons, Theile and Jordan.

Block continued to record and tour through the early to mid-'80's, even managing to pick up the pieces following the death of her oldest son Theile. In a quiet, understated way, in her own blog Block states simply that in 1986, "eight days before his 20th birthday, Theile skidded off the road, hit a tree and was killed. Nothing has been the same …" Her 1987 album House Of Hearts was dedicated to Theile. And yet Theile remains close to her heart and mind. In a 1994 interview with Westworld, Block said "I'll never totally put it away. That would dishonor my son totally if I sort of went past it. I feel like it honors him when people talk about him or ask me about him. It may make me sad, but then I needed to get sad. If he was not mentioned again, I would probably be sad about that. It's a part of our living experiences that people die, and to deny it would be unhealthy."

Block's reputation as well as her fan base continued to grow through the rest of the '80s but her fame practically exploded in the 1990s as she began to win awards as well. 1996, 1999, and 2007 she won Acoustic Blues Album of the Year for When a Woman Gets the Blues, Confessions of a Blues Singer, and The Lady and Mr. Johnson respectively. She also won two W.C. Handy Awards – 1996 for Best Acoustic Blues Album of the Year for When a Woman Gets the Blues and in 1998 as the Traditional Blues Female Artist of The Year.

As she continued to tour and record, Block began to gain confidence as a songwriter as well and her more recent efforts contain several Block penned tracks and are not necessarily all out and out blues efforts. But the blues remains her mainstay. "It's still a blend. I can't imagine a show without a bunch of blues in it … it's just a part of me. Even if I have a total songwriter album, there's blues influences throughout," Block told Spokane, Washington's News Tribune in 1994.

Rory Block is more than just a singer and guitarist. She's a performer and as a performer she gives her all every time she takes the stage. In an interview with Tab in 1996, Block explained her approach to her stage show. "I go directly into this performing mode with a massive amount of energy. I may even be sick beforehand, and I go out there and have this huge amount of energy, I play hard and go into another dimension. Then I come off stage and I get almost (sic) hypothermia. I cool off too fast and start shivering". And you can hear and practically feel this energy in her recordings.

As Blues Revue Magazine once said "Rory Block is one of the greatest living acoustic blues artists … she can hold her own with the legends who inspired her." I can think of no truer words than can be said of her.