Rory Block

Description

Artist, Audience & Community LIVE presents Rory Block at 801 Media Center in Downtown Fort Smith, Arkansas, on October 13, 2022!

Heralded by the Blues Revue as one of the greatest living acoustic blues artists, Rory Block has committed her life and career to preserving the Delta blues tradition and bringing it to life for 21st-century audiences around the world. A traditionalist and an innovator at the same time, she wields a fiery and haunting guitar and vocal style that redefines the boundaries of acoustic blues and folk.

Aurora “Rory” Block grew up in a Manhattan family with Bohemian leanings. Her father owned a Greenwich Village sandal shop, where musicians like Bob Dylan, Maria Muldaur, and John Sebastian made occasional appearances. The rich and diverse Village scene was a constant influence on her cultural sensibilities. She was playing guitar by age ten, and by her early teens she was sitting in on the Sunday jam sessions in Washington Square Park.

In the 1990s, Block scored numerous awards and her visibility overseas increased dramatically when Best Blues and Originals, fueled by the single “Lovin’ Whiskey,” went gold in parts of Europe. She brought home Blues Music Awards four years in a row – two for Traditional Blues Female Artist of the Year, and two for Best Acoustic Blues Album of the Year. In 1997, she won the Blues Music Award for The Lady and Mr. Johnson, a tribute to Robert Johnson, taking home Acoustic Album of the Year.

Today, after more than twenty highly acclaimed releases and five Blues Music Awards, Block is at the absolute height of her creative powers, bringing a world full of life lessons to bear on what she calls “a total celebration of my beloved instrument and best friend, the guitar.” Her newest project, titled “The Mentor Series,” is a growing collection of tribute albums to the blues masters she knew in person.

DOORS OPEN: 6:30 PM

SHOW STARTS: 7:30 PM

TICKETS: $52.50

* Please confirm directly with the promoter or box office to ensure event details have not changed.