Rory Block - Last Fair Deal (2003)

While Rory Block had been a remarkably consistent artist over the course of 30 years, if all it took was for her to leave Rounder Records to make a record like Last Fair Deal, one has to wonder why she didn't do it ages ago. Block is one of the most restless and in-the-field artists in the history of contemporary blues. She has continually dug deeper into the muck and the mire of not only the blues but her personal life, emotionally, spiritually, amorously, and psychically, to bring out what is integral to the creation not re-creation of blues music. She has suffered, endured, and continued to make music that is not only compelling, but necessary for any accurate understanding of the cultural history of the blues tradition because she is perhaps the living female embodiment of it. Last Fair Deal is a record stripped of artifice or niceties. It is raw, feral, tender, sacred, sinful, lusty, and enlightening. On this recording, Block has assembled a collection of songs written, re-arranged, and restored that showcases the guitar as an extension of her physical and spiritual body.

Tracklist:

01 - Gone Again
02 - Sookie Sookie
03 - Country Farm Blues
04 - Last Fair Deal Gone Down
05 - Declare
06 - Cry Out Loud
07 - Amazing Grace
08 - Traveling Riverside Blues
09 - Mama's Stray Baby
10 - Hallelu, Hallelu
11 - Two Places At A Table
12 - Awesome Love
13 - Look What The Lord Has Done
14 - Old Friends