Blues Icon Rory Block Pays Tribute to Bob Dylan with 20-Minute "Murder Most Foul" Cover on Rough And Rowdy Ways Anniversary

Fri Sep 20, 2024
Rory Block

“Probably the most persistent and enthusiastic requests from my fans for anything outside of the blues genre has been the repeated calls to record a Bob Dylan tribute. As with all my recordings, the songs that move me the most deeply, touching heart and soul, are the ones I choose to record.” -- Rory Block 

Taking a break from her award-winning Power Women of The Blues series, which has shone a light on women songwriters and performers over her three most recent albums, Rory Block throws her skills as a fingerpicker and traditional blues arranger behind one of the greatly respected leading artists and songwriter of all-time: Bob Dylan. Performing all instruments herself, Rory combines acoustic and slide guitars, as well as drums and acoustic bass, to create a one-of-a kind arrangement of Dylan’s songbook.

Today, Block releases her full, 20-minute video of Bob Dylan's epic "Murder Most Foul,” commemorating the 4th-anniversary of Dylan's seminal album ‘Rough And Rowdy Ways’ from her forthcoming album, ‘Positively 4th Street, ‘out on June 28 through Stony Plain Records.

Legendary Roots Music Guitarist and Singer Rory Block Relives Greenwich Village Days on New Bob Dylan Salute

Fri May 10, 2024
Rory Block

In the 1960s, Greenwich Village was at the epicenter of the burgeoning folk music boom that was happening around the world, and a young Rory Block had a ringside seat to this evolution. With the release of her new album, Positively 4h Street: A Tribute to Bob Dylan, she gifts the sounds of that era to listeners everywhere. Stony Plain also plans to release the title track as a single on Bob Dylan's birthday, May 24th.

BTW -Dan MacDonald, Rory Block, Young Thieves, Girl Pow-R, Rose Cousins, Sarah Harmer, Becky Bowe

Fri Mar 13 2020
Dan MacDonald

This week’s my fave format, the mixed bag. First outta the bag, Dan MacDonald. Dude’s from a family of musicians from the small village of Ironville, Cape Breton and began fiddling around at a very early age. His fiddle education came mostly from his father, Lloyd MacDonald, who is a well-schooled fiddler, and from the surrounding musical culture of Cape Breton Island. In the late 1980s, MacDonald, and his family formed Scumalash, a traditional Cape Breton band, with whom he toured throughout the United Kingdom between 1988 and 1992, culminating in the release of a self-titled album. Scumalash recently returned from a reunion tour of England.

MacDonald moved to Toronto in 2003, where he became a co-host at the Irish music session at Dora Keogh Irish pub, which is where I became acquainted with his stellar skills and amiable perso. He hooked up with the traditional Irish group, Spraoi. Spraoi.In 2006, MacDonald became music director of The Magic of Ireland, an Irish dance and music show, with which he toured the UK, Canada, the USA and Europe.

Rory Block Announces Second Release of Her "Power Women of the Blues" Series with ‘Prove It’

Fri Feb 07, 2020
Prove It On Me Rory Block

Six-time Blues Music Award-winner (including the 2019 award for the “Acoustic Artist of The Year”) Rory Block announces the release of the second installment in her “Power Women of the Blues” album series with Prove It on Me, coming March 27 on Stony Plain Records. It follows the critically acclaimed 2018 release of her first CD in the series, a tribute to the legendary Bessie Smith titled A Woman’s Soul.

Rory was recently nominated for another Blues Music Award - “Traditional Female Blues Artist” (AKA – The Koko Taylor Award) - for the upcoming BMAs in Memphis in May. “I am incredibly honoured to be nominated for ‘The Koko Taylor Award,’” she said upon hearing the news. “I met Koko in Germany years ago when I opened for her. We crossed paths again at various times on the road, where she began to introduce me as “Little Miss Dynamite.’ It means the world to me to be nominated in a category that honours her memory and her incomparable, historic legacy. I feel as if she is not gone but remains among us- supporting, encouraging, and cheering on the next generation of blues women.”

BTW-Tedeschi Trucks Band, Amanda Rheaume, Rory Block, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Len Mizzoni

Fri Feb 08 2019
Tedeschi Trucks Band

GRAMMY-winning 12-piece musical ensemble Tedeschi Trucks Band, led by husband and wife, Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi, have announced their new album, Signs, out February 15. Featuring 11 new original songs, the album expands on the group’s omnivorous musical appetites, while facing down troubled times with credence and conviction. World-class musicianship is on full display in the genre-defying collection that runs the gamut from uplifting soulful anthems to bittersweet ballads and driving rock and roll.

The teaser is new single ‘Hard Case,’ which showcases Derek’s peerless guitar work and Susan’s stunning, soulful vocals, done to a rootsy rockabilly shuffle.

Rory Block A Woman’s Soul: A Tribute to Bessie Smith

Fri Jul 27, 2018
Cover Photo Credit: Sergio Kurhajec

As a young teenager Rory Block — her full name is Aurora — grew up in New York’s Greenwich Village at the height of the “folk revival.” At 14, already an accomplished guitarist, she discovered the Delta blues — then part of the wide world of folk music. She vividly remembers hearing Mississippi John Hurt in 1963, and spending time with Son House, Fred McDowell and the Reverend Gary Davis.

Her first recordings (under the pseudonym Sunshine Kate) were made for Elektra Records, but she didn’t return to the studio until 1975 when she recorded for RCA Victor and Chrysalis before signing to Rounder Records, for whom she cut more than a dozen albums. She has also recorded for a number of other labels, in between endless tour schedules.

Along the way, she has won five W.C. Handy Awards (now known simply as Blues Awards) from the Blues Foundation, two for “Traditional Blues Female Artist,” and three for “Acoustic Blues Album of the Year.” She’s earned a gold record in Holland, and toured from one end of the United States to the other end of Canada, not to mention Poland and Norway and Italy and a half a dozen more European countries.