The reigning queen of traditional country blues, Aurora "Rory" Block is a singer and guitarist of smoldering intensity. Identified as a national treasure by the New York Blues & Jazz Society, Rory is a five-time W.C. Handy Blues Award winner.

Born into a musical family residing in New York City's Greenwich Village, Rory took up guitar at age 10. In that environment she had the unprecedented opportunity to meet and play music with such blues greats as Son House, Reverend Gary Davis, Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James, Bukka White, and Mississippi Fred McDowell. On her own since the early 1970s, through over two dozen albums and an almost constant touring schedule, Rory has become one of the world's most important preservers of the roots of American music, in the Mississippi Delta country blues tradition.

Tonight Rory applies her fiery, haunting touch to originals and old blues from her new CD, a tribute to Son House, Blues Walkin' Like a Man (Stony Plain). Recalling seeing the father of the Delta blues in New York at the age of 15, Rory comments: "Backstage at the Village Gate in 1965 Son House virtually radiated a golden light. As I watched him perform, rolling his head back, slamming the strings and almost choking on the intensity, I learned a deep lesson about the power of the music which became an inseparable part of me."

Visit Rory's website

Listen to a track from Rory Block:

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