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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Rory Block Pours Emotion Into Music, Audience

Joe Ehrbar Correspondent

Rory Block Tuesday, April 18, The Met

Not since seeing Taj Mahal five years ago have I seen one person so completely take control of a performance and command the audience the way Rory Block did at The Met on Tuesday night.

On stage, it was just Block, her acoustic guitar and a microphone. Initially it appeared as though the spacious, empty stage might swallow her whole. It didn’t.

Instead, Block’s confident, husky vocals, incessant foot-stomping, aggressive guitar-playing and seizurelike jerks made her an enormous presence.

Throughout the night, Block was affected by her music; you could see it in the way she performed. And she was able to take those feelings of emotion and direct them toward the audience.

During the first half of the concert, Block mined the Delta territory of the blues. Many of these selections were written by other blues artists, although it sure didn’t seem that way.

Block approached the old blues classics as though they were her songs. She invoked so much of her own personality and inflections into those songs they became her songs.

Block’s guitar playing was another big highlight. It was with her guitar that Block was most expressive.

The songstress manipulated her instrument intensely and aggressively. At times, she gave the guitar quite a pounding, even using it for percussive purposes. It was amazing that none of the strings snapped from the barrage.

Further, the neat thing about her technique was that she didn’t play just a straight rhythm or straight lead; she combined them.

The only disappointing aspect of her instrumental performance was that she sparsely employed the slide, which was too bad because she was quite good at it.

Two times during the night, Block stood up from her chair, put it aside and simply sang a cappella. Her rendition of “The Last Leviathan” was mighty and brave.

Block chose contemporary ballads for the second half of her concert.

It was during these songs that the beauty of both her voice and guitar work shone through.

In her bluesy material, she asserted herself with strong, impenetrable vocals and solid guitar lines.

With her ballads, Block displayed a human and refreshing vulnerability. Her tough vocals and aggressive guitar-playing gave way to softer croons and more delicate acoustic tones.