Priscilla Block is an Open Book on Her Debut Album, ‘Welcome to the Block Party’

When Priscilla Block moved to Nashville in 2014, she set her sights on one day releasing an album. Now, nearly eight years later, Block’s dream has become a reality with the release of her 12-track debut, Welcome To The Block Party.

The album is a culmination of years of hard work, putting in her time in Music City as a songwriter and artist. With every track co-written by Block, Welcome To The Block Party tells her personal stories of heartbreak, triumph and independence and offers fans a glimpse into who she is behind the scenes.

While songs like the title track and “Thick Thighs” showcase Block’s light-hearted side, she truly shines when she digs deep and tugs at the emotions. This is evident on the autobiographical “I Know A Girl,” featuring guest vocals from Hillary Lindsey.

“It’s very much of my life,” Block tells Country Now of the track she co-wrote with Lindsey and David Garcia. “When we wrote this song, we just got to talking about my childhood and why I am the way that I am. I think that’s a piece of my life that I had never really written before, so it was cool to just write it out on paper.”

Though she admits she was “quite terrified” to get in the writing room with hit songwriters like Lindsey and Garcia, Block says the lyrics fell into place quickly.

“Hillary just started asking me about my life… and the song just fell out of the air,” she recalls. “I’m such a big fan of hers and I felt like it – it made perfect sense to have her on this song.”

She describes the finished product as “the older sister talking to the younger me” and says she’s “obsessed” with the way it turned out.

Another emotional standout is “Like A Boy.” It’s the track Block says she’s most excited for fans to hear.

Like many of her songs, “Like A Boy” was inspired by a breakup, but this one is “really special” as it was inspired by advice her father once gave her.

“I remember when I wrote this song, I had a flashback to my dad saying, ‘you know, a man… a man won’t walk away,” she remembers, adding, “I was going through a really hard breakup and it was kind of the moment that I was able to kind of let that feeling go – you know? There was just something that was really freeing when I wrote that song.”

Block promises the album has “all the trash, all the sass and all the sad” and she certainly delivers. The sass, and her ‘90s/early 2000s country influences, shine on the confident “Ever Since You Left” – a breakup anthem that packs a punch like songs previously released by some of her heroes like Jo Dee Messina and Gretchen Wilson.

Funny enough, she was listening to a Luke Combs’ “Beer Never Broke My Heart” just before the songwriting session.

“I just like songs that are kind of like girl power songs,” she explains. “I walked in there and I was like, ‘guys, we need to write a country girl power, like, ‘I’m good actually, your loss for leaving’ type song’ and I think that we really landed it that day.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Block had “full creative control” on the project and had a hand in developing everything that goes along with the album, including the packaging. The color blue that fans see intertwined throughout the album and all of Block’s social media accounts and merch? She had a hand in that, too.

“Blue is very much of the way that I was feeling when I wrote these songs. Blue is my favorite color,” she reveals. “I love themes with albums. I think there’s something really cool in that. I think to my favorite albums of my favorite artists and there’s always something that I’m like, ‘oh my gosh, that was this era.’ And so everything in this album is blue and I want it to be something that you hear, but when you hear, it, you also see blue.”

Following the release of the album, Priscilla Block will embark on her first-ever headlining tour, aptly titled the Welcome To The Block Party Tour. With shows planned through late April, the North Carolina native is ready to give fans the full “Block Party experience.”

“I want it to be an experience,” the ACM New Female Artist of the Year nominee teases. “Even if I’m playing clubs, I want outfit changes, I want it to feel like something that they’ve never seen on a small stage.”

Welcome To The Block Party is available to stream/purchase HERE.