Rory Block
Positively 4th Street (A Tribute to Bob Dylan)
Stony Plain Records
Raw, Bluesy and Honest Interpretations Of 12 Dylan Songs
In the accompanying notes I chuckled when I read that Rory entered her Dad’s Greenwich Village sandal shop’ one day in the early 60’s to see him in deep conversation with a handsome young man, who told him that he was “was a poet first and foremost who really didn’t care for the ‘business’ side of things. His priorities lay in being true to his art.”
That young man was Bob Dylan; and this is Ms Block’s tribute to the great man.
I have many cover versions of Dylan songs in my collection and I was intrigued to hear Rory Block’s take on the ennui and nuances in his songs.
Rory starts in leftfield with an acoustic and Bluesy Everything Is Broken, from NO MERCY which is the first of many surprises here; although with hindsight it isn’t such a surprise, is it as Rory is famed for resurrecting acoustic Blues songs?
The next ‘surprise’ is second track Ring Them Bells the first of three inclusions from No Mercy, but stripped back to punchy acoustic guitar and even punchier female vocals, and it doesn’t take any stretch of the imagination to picture Rory (or indeed Bob for that matter) standing in the corner of a Greenwich Village coffee shop singing it in exactly this format.
While the songs herein are among Dylan’s finest, the adaptations and arrangements are 100% Rory Block and if you aren’t a Dylanophile, you wouldn’t presume the tragically beautiful Not Dark Yet (from Time Out Of Mind) and the stark Mother of Muses (Rough and Rowdy Ways) were actually Dylan songs and not something Rory has found in a dusty cellar Down South; as they are seeped in the Blues in her adaptations.
Obviously there are plenty of His Bobness’s more popular tunes here; Like a Rolling Stone and Positively 4th Street but I love the way that Rory Block arranges them into haunting Blues infused acoustic Folk songs that they intrinsically become Rory Block songs, no more and no less.
It’s not too much of a stretch to think that the jaunty Hey, Mr Tambourine Man owes more to the Byrds version than the original yet while A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall is note for note like Bob’s ‘hit’ but Rory Block is still unable to sound unlike anyone other than herself, giving this hoary old classic a new ragged beauty.
While I’m nowhere near an expert on Dylan’s albums; I’m still surprised that my first choice of a Favourite Song yet again comes from No Mercy, but the wheezy Ring Them Bells is so desperately emotional I found myself inadvertently moving my head nearer the speaker at one stage to hear the words and subtle inflections.
The other, and probably my ‘real’ Favourite Song is Murder Most Foul (Rough and Rowdy Ways again); obviously about the addresses the assassination of John F. Kennedy in the wider context of American political and cultural history, but perhaps there is eve more hiding between the lines and in the way the lines are constructed … but I will leave that for the Dylananthropoligists to unearth …. for me it’s simply dark and fragile tale that bizarrely comes in at over 5 minutes longer than Dylan’s original 16 minute opus!!
Not for the first time I’m being tempted to spend more time listening to Bob Dylan records because I’ve fallen in love with some of his songs via delicate interpretations from someone else … but that ship has sailed and I will always have Rory Block’s fabulous re-inventions when I need something articulate and heartbreaking in my life.
Released June 28th 2024
https://www.roryblock.com/
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https://stonyplain.labelstore.ca/releases/772532149327-positively-4th-street-digital-mp3.html
https://roryblock.bandcamp.com/album/positively-4th-street
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