New York-based singer-songwriter Jamie Block
helped create New York's anti-folk movement in the late 1980s and early 90s, drawing from musical elements of punk rock, electronica, jazz and hip hop.
His first studio album, Lead Me Not Into Penn Station in 1996, caught attention quickly, leading to Block opening shows for The Brian Setzer Orchestra, Bob Mould and They Might Be Giants.
In 1998, Glen Ballard (who had just produced Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill) signed Block as the first artist to his Capitol Records imprint, Java Records. Block released Timing is Everything that year, which the Boston Globe described as “tight, important and indeed well-timed.”
Several of Jamie's songs then appeared on movie soundtracks for Blast from the Past, Clubland and Never Been Kissed.
His return to recording came a few years later, with The Last Single Guy, released in 2006.
Then, in 2013, Block teamed up producer/engineer Dean Sharenow for Whitecaps On The Hudson, considered his most personal album to date.
The album featured a world-class band, including Erik Della Penna (Natalie Merchant, Joan Baez) on guitars, Mick Rossi (Paul Simon, Phillip Glass) on keyboards, and Byron Isaacs (Olabelle) and Jeff Hill (Rufus Wainwright) sharing the bass duties. It was recorded in two live Brooklyn sessions to maintain the spontaneity and flow of Block’s homespun demos.
Block's latest release, The Greene Street Sessions (2018), is a masterful reinvention of some of the original tracks recorded for his major-label debut, Timing is Everything in 1998. The tracks were recorded in the legendary Greene Street recording studio in Soho. Lou Reed’s producer and guitarist, Mike Rathke, and the rest of Reed’s band — bassist Fernando Saunders and drummer Tony Smith — as well as frequent Block collaborator, bassist Mozart Mark Dedeaux, provided the able back-up band for Jamie's guitar and vocals.
Critic Steven Marsh said upon the album's release, "The performances and production values captured are revelatory, letting us hear these songs in entirely new ways."
- Virginia Heffernan