NORWICH – Colorscape Chenango Arts Festival announced the addition of award-winning blues artist Rory Block to the star-studded lineup of performers who will take the stage September 7 and 8 in Norwich.

Recently named Acoustic Blues Artist of the Year at the 2019 Blues Music Awards, Rory Block is a singer and musician dedicated to the Delta blues tradition and bringing it to life for 21st century audiences around the world.

Born in Princeton, NJ and raised in Manhattan, Block’s talent was shaped by experiences playing with great Delta Blues artists including Rev. Gary Davis, Skip James, John Hurt, and Son House.

Block described her early musical upbringing: “Many people ask me why a fourteen year old white girl from New York City felt so deeply and personally connected to the music of the black rural south from another era. How can you explain love? The music resonated inside me, felt real, beautiful, spoke to what was in my heart, moved my soul. It cried out as I cried out, it wept when I wept, it haunted and rolled and wandered as I did. I always say that before I'm white, black, male or female, I'm human. But does it really need to be explained? Inspiration is born in the deepest part of the soul, where boundaries don't exist. If you live with your soul extending beyond the borders of your body, you never see boundaries.”