Catching The Blues Bug With Rory Block

Three decades ago, musician Rory Block made it her mission to fight for an old-fashioned blues revival.

She hasn’t quit yet. And on Friday, March 30, the five-time Blues Music Award-winner will bring her version of a blues comeback—and her thumping, pounding guitar-playing—to the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center’s stage.

“There was this pressure in the business that you’d never make it doing the old blues,” Ms. Block recalled during a telephone interview from her home in Kentucky last week. “I believe in the power of thought and one day, I said, ‘There’s going to be a blues revival. Every show I do, I’m going to feel like this is the most important music in the world. I’m going to have that energy around me and, in my own small way, I’m going to help create a revival.’”

She joined forces with legendary artists Bonnie Raitt, Koko Taylor, B.B. King and John Hammond, weaving a strong tapestry that the music industry couldn’t ignore. Much of the lost blues music has been rediscovered over the years, but the musicians behind it still have a ways to go, Ms. Block said.

“I think it has been my determination to prove all of the nay-saying to be wrong, and it’s pretty satisfying that I have,” she said. “It’s not a revenge thing. I think we’ll always be fighting. I was at one point talking to Bonnie Raitt, and we realized that there’s no category at the Grammys for what we do—acoustic traditional country blues. It drops between the cracks. So I’m still working on that. I’ll get back to you on that one.”

In the meantime, the show must go on. Last week, the 62-year-old blues artist hopped back on the tour bus with her husband and publicity front man, Rob Davis, and their three farm dog rescues—Beauregard, Bella Sophie and Uno—to head out for a slate of East Coast performances, including Westhampton Beach.

Before taking the stage, Ms. Block never prepares a set list. She simply doesn’t need one, she said.

“I get led, in a way,” she explained. “It’s somewhat of a rambling story. It’s an unfolding journey. It’s a little bit like a play. I tell the story of my life throughout the set. It’s kind of like my life book.”

She’ll begin with her childhood. Growing up in Manhattan, Ms. Block couldn’t help but be surrounded by music—both by her musical parents and her afternoons spent at her father’s sandal shop, often frequented by stars of the time, on West 4th Street in Greenwich Village. She picked up a guitar for the first time at age 10.

One day on the cusp of her teenage years, Ms. Block walked into the sandal shop and noticed a “really interesting young man” sitting there, she recalled.

“He was wearing a puffy little cap. He had long fingernails and a beautiful, unique look to him, and he was talking with my dad,” she said. “When he left, my father said, ‘See that young man? He’s been signed by a record company and has the opportunity to have a really big career. But he values art above everything. He’s a poet first and believes in artistic honesty and being true to his art—not nearly as concerned about the business side of things.’”

Turns out, the young man was Bob Dylan.

“I’ve always remembered that,” she said. “It’s good to know he felt that way, you know, and it didn’t hold him back. Putting your art first is a lesson that I live with. Music first and all the other regalia later, if it comes.”

At age 14, Ms. Block officially caught the blues bug. The style resonated with her, she said. The artist has repeatedly been asked, “Why did a young white girl from Manhattan play 1930s-era black blues from the rural South?” Her reply, “It’s not your skin, it’s your soul.”

“I thought it was the most beautiful music I’d ever heard,” Ms. Block said. “It wasn’t an intellectual choice. I was drawn immediately to it, no question. I wanted to go down that path.”

Two dozen albums later, the musician’s fiery passion is still burning hot. Her shows are chock-full with covers by the greats, including Fred McDowell and Robert Johnson, as well as her own original, deeply personal songs.

Her gold record “Lovin’ Whiskey,” which is about a loved one’s drinking problem, and “Silver Wings,” which Ms. Block wrote with her mother in mind, are two audience favorites, she said.

“They’ll know me. They’ll know the real me, in a way,” she said. “They’ll know the imperfect person that I am. Early on, when I started writing personal songs, I tried to hide them. ‘I don’t want to do this song in this place.’ But after a while, these were the songs people were appreciating the most. It’s better to not be alone in a personal experience. Everyone’s going through something. We’re in it together.”

And Ms. Block is showing no signs of putting the blues revival to rest. The musician splits her time between her three homes: Kentucky, upstate New York and her tour bus.

“I never slow down,” she said. “No, no. There would be no point in that.”

Rory Block will play the blues on Friday, March 30, at 8 p.m. at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center. Tickets range from $20 to $30. To purchase tickets or for more information, call the box office at 288-1500 or visit whbpac.org.