Born into a musically gifted family, Aurora "Rory" Block took up classical guitar at age 10 and taught herself folk styles to accompany her fiddle-playing father at festivals and clubs, where she had the unprecedented opportunity to meet and play music with such blues greats as Son House, Reverend Gary Davis, Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James, Bukka White, and Mississippi Fred McDowell.

On her own since the early 1970s, through two dozen albums and an almost constant touring schedule, Rory has become one of the world's most important preservers of the roots of American music, in the Mississippi Delta country blues tradition. Rory's 1995 album, When a Woman Gets the Blues won the W. C. Handy Award for Best Acoustic Blues Album of the Year, as did her 1999 effort, Confessions of a Blues Singer, and she won the Handy award for Traditional Blues Female Artist of the Year for both 1997 and 1998. Tonight Rory applies her fiery, haunting touch and rich voice to originals and old blues and gospel tunes, including numbers from her latest album, Last Fair Deal (Telarc).