Rory Block — Heavy On the Blues

From Charley to Buddy to Minnie and out to Jimi: Oh, what a day meant for zooming.

Rory Block’s newest batch of (largely) one-woman performances comes without a title track. Heavy On the Blues instead functions as a tipoff alerting you as to what awaits. These 41 minutes also come without boundaries. And that is the key to opening the floodgates; what allows for the free-range zooming from the Delta shack to the Chicago nightclub to the outer galaxy in order to plunder choice material to feed her country-blues-schooled acoustic guitar.

Block’s move to a different label, Long Island-headquartered M.C. Records, wastes no time

Rev. Gary Davis

reaping its rewards. By forgoing any central, organizing topic to set guidelines, this freewheeling session breaks from devotion focused on one particular hero at a time, as did her Mentor Series that honored Son House, then Mississippi Fred McDowell, then Rev. Gary Davis and then the rest of the bluesmen whose influence was directly transferred—face-to-face, guitar-to-guitar—in the 1960s. Nor does the session adhere to a thematic collective, as did her subsequent Power Women of the Blues Series, which honored another set of heroes stretched from Elvie Thomas to Bessie Smith to Koko Taylor. And then last year, Positively 4th Street concentrated on Bob Dylan’s catalogue.

Here, however, the field is wide open. Wide, wide open.

Given the green light, Block gladly ricochets from lyrically reshaping Buddy Guy’s “What Kind of Woman Is This” to shearing off silvery, curly glisses throughout Memphis Minnie’s “Me and My Chauffeur” with every pass along the strings by a lengthy deep-well socket that perennially serves as her slide. Then, those trademarked ascending chords step up into “The Wind Cries Mary,” one of the gentler and kinder dreamscapes from Jimi Hendrix. 

Wait … what? Yes, Rory Block—who hung with Mississippi John Hurt, Bukka White and Skip James, then years later tracked down Robert Johnson’s living descendants for her The Lady and Mr. Johnson album—interprets Hendrix. Lately things just don’t seem the same, indeed.

Mississippi John Hurt

For contrast, she does so immediately before barreling “Down the Dirt Road Blues” of Charley Patton, kicking up 1929 Delta dust with her Martin’s rich, full boom before segueing into “Mississippi Blues.” Willie Brown—subtler and less husky in touch than the brusque Patton—recorded his fingerstyle showcase 13 years later for the Library of Congress. Block’s beautifully striding version also chimes out with delicately picked strings until the slide skids across for a momentary interlude. A peppy, playful—and also slid—strut in “High Heel Sneakers” jumps ahead to 1964 for a shot of wry levity which likewise enticed everyone from bluesman Jimmy Johnson to jazz cat Jimmy Smith.

But Heavy on the Blues offers another twist beyond unrestrained roaming. Block breaks from her solo format when three electric guitarists cameo on a song apiece. Joanna Connor is the one running bottleneck support on “The Wind Cries Mary.” Jimmy Vivino takes “What Kind of Woman Is This,” that Buddy song where the funk hits the fan. Most majestically wounded of all, though, is when Ronnie Earl haunts the dimly lit backdrop to “Walking the Back Streets.” It’s an agonized crawl through the rubble of an imploded relationship first crept by Little Milton. Here, the slide’s rattle and low grumble get out-winced by Earl’s writhing Stratocaster, whose every fill and solo twists the knife deeper. With a method just as reliant on the black space around notes as the notes themselves, he’s the ideal wingman for the mission.

Although technically solo for the seven other cuts, Rory often builds a “band” by multiplying herself through overlaying her own bass and some programmed drums on top of her guitar. Her original “Can’t Quit That Stuff” is but one beefed-up example. The narrative draws its mantras for blues players from a personal conversation held backstage with Hubert Sumlin, Howlin’ Wolf’s guitarist on tons of history including “Smokestack Lightning” and “Evil Is Goin’ On.” Still, “Hold to His Hand” maximizes multitracking in order to have church with a heavenly choir of gospel angels swarming around her lead singing.

While honeyed there, Block’s voice elsewhere can sail into falsetto exclamations, holler out or dig down for growls, purrs, grit and whatever else gets triggered by the emotion at hand. For all-around tenderhearted, however, the life-affirming “Stay Around a Little Longer” eavesdrops on a private and personal dialogue with her Maker more gentled, humbled and stripped down than when Buddy once swapped those lines back and forth with B.B..

Now dozens of albums removed from breaking through with 1981’s High Heeled Blues, you can still hear the sparkle in her eye that has been twinkling ever since an unplugged guitar first bellyached into the once-teenager’s instantly captivated ear. So, Rory Block, Heavy On the Blues? She wouldn’t have it any other way.

Label: M.C. Records

Release date: 8/22/25

Artist website: Rory Block.com

Label website: M.C. Records.com

Reviewed by Dennis Rozanski