Rory Block: Biography

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• Elizabeth Cotten
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• Stevie Ray Vaughan
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• Tommy Johnson
• Robert Johnson
• Willie T. Brown
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• Skip James
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• Jordan Block Valdina
• Ron Bach

Born:

Nov 6, 1949 in New York, NY

Genres:

Blues Music, Contemporary Blues Music, Modern Electric Blues Music

Decades Active:

1970's|1980's|1990's|2000's

Artistic Quality

Medium

Popularity

Medium

Ratings Guide

Aurora "Rory" Block has staked her claim to be one of America's top acoustic blueswomen, an interpreter of the great Delta blues singers, a slide guitarist par excellence, and also a talented songwriter on her own account. Born and raised in Manhattan by a family that had Bohemian leanings, she spent her formative years hanging out with musicians like Peter Rowan, John Sebastian, and Geoff Muldaur, who hung out in her father's sandal shop, before picking up the guitar at the age of ten. Her record debut came two years later, backing her father on the Elektra String Band Project, a concept album. She met guitarist Stefan Grossman, who, like her, was in love with the blues. The pair would often travel to the Bronx to visit the Reverend Gary Davis, one of the greatest living bluesmen. At the tender age of 15 she left home, hitting the road in true '60s fashion and traveling through the South, where she learned her blues trade at the feet of Skip James and Mississippi John Hurt, her greatest influence, before ending up in Berkeley. It was there that she developed her slide technique (she uses a socket wrench as her slide), but she didn't record until 1975, when she released I'm in Love (a compilation of earlier material, The Early Tapes 1975-76, appeared later). After two records for Chrysalis, she recorded the instructional How to Play Blues Guitar for Grossman's Kicking Mule label, and later moved to then-fledgling Rounder, with whom she's had an ongoing relationship. She toured constantly, often playing as many as 250 dates in a year, which kept her away from her family -- she'd married and begun having children in the early '70s -- but developed her reputation as a strong, vibrant live performer, and one of the best players of old country blues in America. In 1987 the best of her Rounder cuts were compiled on Best Blues and Originals, which, as it said, featured her interpretations of blues classics and some of her own material. Two of the tracks, released as singles in Belgium and Holland, became gold record hits. In addition to her regular albums, Block made a series of instructional records and videos, as well as a children's record, Color Me Wild. Although she had been performing for a long time, the plaudits didn't really begin until 1992, when she won a NAIRD Award for Ain't I a Woman, a feat repeated in 1994 and 1997. In '96 she began winning W.C. Handy Awards, first for Best Traditional Album (When a Woman Gets the Blues), and in '97 and '98 for Best Traditional Blues Female Artist. In 1997 she was elected to the CAMA Hall of Fame, and in 1999 she received yet another Handy Award, for Best Acoustic Blues Album (Confessions of a Blues Singer). She stills tours, although not as heavily as in earlier times, and she's often accompanied by her grown son Jordan Block who also plays on her albums.

- Chris Nickson, All Music Guide