*** Rory Block

GONE WOMAN BLUES: THE COUNTRY BLUES COLLECTION

(Rounder)

This carefully culled compilation from five Rounder albums goes to the heart of Block's artistry: interpretations of traditional country blues. Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton, and Skip James are a few of the legends Block takes on with acoustic slide guitar, transforming their work into tales of her own spiritual and sexual struggles with a paint-blistering voice.

The high point is her version of Son House's "Preaching Blues," which Block ever so gently eroticizes, turning the song's gospel call of "I'm going to preach the blues" into a breathless, orgasmic cry. Singing as if every syllable were filled with an explosive emotional charge, she makes traditional blues tunes sound menacing, ecstatic, redemptive, and, most important, as if it they were her own.

-- Norman Weinstein