Press & Reviews
The Review
Washington's Original Arts-News Magazine
October 1998
Block In My Memory
by Mary Ryan
What a way to spend a Saturday night - going to the IOTA Club and Cafe to hear New York's sensation - BLOCK - live on stage (September 26). BLOCK is now a three-man group led by lead singer and writer, Jamie Block. His current "alterna-folk" solo CD entitled Lead Me Not Into Penn Station was released in 1996 on Burning Bush Records. On October 6 you can get his new release, Timing Is Everything, featuring 13 tracks of wit and satire in a joint venture from Java Records and Capitol Records. He has played to the college crowd, building the grass roots, and right now you can hear his group's East Village-flavored music in the D.C. area on radio station WHFS.
It's a bigger BLOCK these days, with Keith Richards clone, John Abbey, on guitar. He is fun to watch because he is so intense and wrapped up in the group's music. He's got some fun moves. The drummer is Mark Hutchins. He is a country-looking guy in his straw hat, and he shows a lot of emotion as he plays terrific drums and sings at significant moments. Jamie Block wears a velvet jacket with his plaid pants, and he has an easy to listen to voice. BLOCK's sound was not the usual muddy one that comes from close quarters in small clubs; I could understand most of what they sang, including a wonderful rendition of Perry Como's "Catch a Falling Star."
Jamie Block is really into making comments on society. He's got a guitar full of bumper stickers. His song called "Third Mall from the Sun" talks about all the similarities in society which the group sees as they travel around on their tour.
I asked Will Hawkins, BLOCK's manager, what he'd like to see happen for this group. He said there are two kinds of success - there is K-Mart Big and Record Big. K-Mart Big is when all the stations play your records and you get lots of appearances. Record Big is influencing people and their lives. They hope to achieve Record Big first. I think BLOCK is well on their way to reaching that success.
I asked Jamie what his music message is to his listeners. He calls the tour "Loosening the Screws of America." He hopes people will take a chance with romance, or call someone they have been afraid to talk to for a long time. They were a nice group of guys. Maybe we are seeing the start of something big, big, big!