| High Heeled Blues |  | Artist: Rory Block
Label: Rounder Select
Category: Music
List Price: $9.98
Buy New: $4.99
You Save: $4.99 (50%)
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Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 817622
Media: LP Record
UPC: 011661306110
EAN: 0011661306110
ASIN: B00008FP94
Release Date: October 17, 1990
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Walking Blues - Rory Block, Johnson, Robert [01 | | • | Travelin' Blues - Rory Block, Delaney, Mattie | | • | Got to Have You Be My Man - Rory Block, Block, Rory | | • | Devil Got My Man - Rory Block, James, Skip | | • | Down in the Dumps - Rory Block, Wilson, Wesley | | • | The Water Is Wide - Rory Block, Traditional | | • | Since You Been Gone - Rory Block, Block, Rory | | • | Cross Road Blues - Rory Block, Johnson, Robert [01 | | • | Achin' Heart - Rory Block, Block, Rory | | • | Hilarity Rag - Rory Block, Traditional | | • | Kind Hearted Man - Rory Block, Johnson, Robert [01 | | • | Uncloudy Day - Rory Block, Alwood, J.K. |
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| Customer Reviews:
 Love The Blues December 11, 2006
Lsingy (Santa Barbara, CA)
This is one of the main CD's I use to show my teenage niece's what blues can do for the soul. I am just sorry I found Rory Block myself just a few years ago. I'm a big Robert Johnson fan, and to find a woman who moves me the same way is huge. I play this CD alot in my "cubicle" at my office and people always wander over, asking who this is, always just saying, "man, this is good music" but who aren't even familar with mainstream blues musicians, but if feels good to turn people on to blues. I have the same reaction when I play Keb Mo and the like. I love every track on this CD, for me, it's hard to write a professonal sounding critique, because this type of good music surpasses words, it just fills the soul. Love it, love it.
My Favorite Rory Block Album September 21, 2005
J. Mallernee (Macon, Georgia USA)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I bought this album in the 1980's and was blown away. Soon after I was fortunate enough to see her in concert...in an old bowling alley, of all places. I felt bad that she was playing in such a place, but it was a REAL pleasure for the small audience she had. And she was soooo gracious. After the concert she met with a few of us and signed autographs. I asked her to play "Hilarity Rag" and she said "Hmmm, let me see if I remember how it goes." and she played it for me. She didn't miss a note. An awesome person and musician.
In my opinion, some of her albums are not that hot - but that is probably some dumb*ss record company's fault. Thankfully the music world will now let her do what she does phenomenally well, play and sing acoustic blues.
I highly recommend this album (High Heeled Blues) & "Confessions Of A Blues Singer". I am not saying there aren't others worth buying, but these are 2 favorites that come to mind here & now.
Rory, if you're out there, thank you for your years of toil, for keeping your heart & soul, and for playing in that dinky little bowling alley in Boulder, Colorado. I wish you the absolute best.
What a CD! August 21, 2005
David Gallucci (Connecticut, USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I have many of Rory's CD's, all of which seem to dominate my car CD player. But this one just seems to get the most play. Her playing is, in a word, marvelous. She really pours her heart and soul into every phrase, every note, which is key to the blues. She takes each song to some other dimension where you can feel what she feels, as strange as that may sound. But that's what the blues is all about - if it ain't got no emotion or soul, it just ain't the blues.
Dave G.
Connecticut
P.S. I got a chance to see her live (August 2005) in Newmarket, NH, and she was amazing! No recording tricks or dubs. She's a blues master!
Blues that's solid as a Block, Rory Block that is October 23, 2003
Daniel J. Hamlow (Utsunomiya City, Japan)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Rory Block grew up during the blues revival in the 1960's, when the works of artists such as Skip James, Mississippi John Hurt, and Robert Johnson were being rediscovered. She was influenced by the Delta sound and style of singing and High-Heeled Blues released in 1981, exemplifies her as a supreme interpreter of those classics, as well as her own compositions, solidly strumming her guitar with great aplomb.Block covers no less than three Robert Johnson songs. She does some intense strumming on his "Walkin' Blues" reflecting the travelling those bluesman had to do back then. Upon hearing "I've been mistreated and I don't mind if I die," I sigh and think, that's the blues right there. "Travelin' Blues" is the next one covered, about a woman who tells the guy who got her pregnant that her traveling days are over and to take her in. "Got To Have You Be My Man" was written by her, and she showcases her pleasant soaring higher yodelling voice here. She assertively says, "I want you to be my man." Her cover of Skip James' immortal "Devil Got My Woman" "Man" here, actually, replicates the wailing despair, in a higher register when she sings "I'd rather be the devil than be a woman to that man." and "nothing but the devil could change my baby's mind." I'm taken back to the 1930's when I hear the piano blues of "Down In The Dumps." She sings "I done cried so much, look like I got the mumps/I can't keep from worrying cause I'm down in the dumps." And she tells the landlord to leave her alone and contemplates jumping into the river because her husband's missing. What emotion she imparts when she sings, "When I woke up, my pillow was wet with tears." She covers the traditional "The Water Is Wide", which has that barroom piano accompanying her guitar. Her version is good, but Karla Bonoff and Charlotte Church did this better. "Since You've Been Gone" is her own tune, and the woman in the song decides to sing her own tune, as she tells her man, who's returned. Then she does an admirably version of "Crossroad Blues" with some intricate guitar work throughout. The Block-penned "Achin' Heart" has a touch of folk in it, as she sings of the bad luck she has as well her feelings of loneliness. The thing that really touched me was this one: "Well I feel so lonesome, it makes me weep and moan. Lord I can't find me a good man to share my life and home." In my case, substitute woman in that line. You tell'em, Rory. "Hilarity Rag" is an instrumental that showcases her guitar playing. Is her playing wonderful or what? "Kind Hearted Man" is another Johnson cover tune, the original being "Kind Hearted Woman Blues E and her guitar thumps and strums its strings off here. The irony of this song is how she says he's kind hearted but he doesn't love her, calls another woman's name, plus he practices evil all the time. Must have been the code for singing about the boss behind his back. The initially acapella "Uncloudy Day" shows her twangy bluesy voice in its various ranges including her yodelling high, before the guitar kicks in during the second half of the song. Block's voice is wonderful and perfectly realizes the Delta singing style. If we add some scratches and hisses to the songs here, they'd be mistaken for old classics. I kick myself for knowing about her performance at the Telluride Festival too late last month. John Sebastian of the Lovin' Spoonful not only co-produced this album but does harmonica and baritone electric guitar here. A nice introduction to Block's music.
Virtuoso guitar work, excellent singing, very spirited. June 20, 1998
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Every song on this album is a winner. Traditional blues doesn't get any better than this. It is well performed, well recorded, a real gem.
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