Search - Rory Block :: When a Woman Gets the Blues

Brilliant traditional blues album

John Lasseter | Fairfield, CT | 01/10/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Holy mackerel, can this woman play! Mainly upbeat collection of traditional blues and traditional-style originals, with just Block's voice and her knock-you-flat-out guitar playing, especially when she plays slide. The opening track, a cover of "Preaching Blues" is almost worth the price of the whole CD, as is "Taint Long for Day". The only blips are "Joliet Bound" -- mainly due to the fact that I've never liked this song with its awkward rhyming -- and her cover of Johnson's "Hellhound", which just feels a little contrived to me (the total lack of diction in the singing sounds like an aping of Johnson rather than anything real).Otherwise, this is an essentially perfect recording. At a guess, I'd say I've listened to it around 30 times and counting."