From the opening bars of the aforementioned "Crossroads" to the final resonations of her Martin guitar on "Kind Hearted Woman Blues," the only thing the spotlight reveals on this album is the fact Ms. Block is one of the best Delta Blues slide guitar players I've ever heard. Only John Hammond can match, or surpass her sometimes, in dexterity, precision, and most of all passion.
It's one thing to be technically proficient at what you're doing, which she is, and another all together to communicate the emotional strength of the music as well. After listening to Rory Block and Mr. Hammond I've realized what places them a cut above so many others is the emotional honesty that imbues their music at all times.
You can't pull yourself away from their music even if you tried, let alone have your attention wander while listening to one of their recordings. Ms. Block doesn't have the harmonica of Mr. Hammond to throw into the mix, so in some ways she faces even a greater challenge in holding our attention. But hold it she does.
Song after song she pulls us in and holds us in the palm of her hand; we listen captivated as her fingers dance along the strings and her slide floats down the frets to coax notes that pierce the heart. Over top, her voice, whisky poured over gravel never sounded so good before, sings lyrics that snake their way into your brain where they trigger emotional resonance via the so called reasoning centre.
The Lady and Mr. Johnson is the culmination of years of playing and preaching the gospel according to Robert Johnson and the Mississippi Delta for Rory Block. In her liner notes she talks about his music being an obsession for her since the day she picked up that album in 1964 and how people have questioned her about why she would be so focused on music from before she was born.
Article comments
1 - Mark Saleski
Block is great, isn't she. what's interesting is that she just doesn't look like somebody who's gonna play the blues....doesn't look like somebody who'll give a short talk about Son House and then go on to blister your mind with that guitar.
i saw her live once and it was pretty danged phenomenal.
2 - Douglas Mays
Absolute! And she has this endearing type quality to her presentation. I saw her once back in about 1986 in Santa Fe, NM. Yeah, quite a talent. On such an unsuspecting level.