Priscilla Block

It’s that kind of attitude towards life, and her fearless music-making, that has made the rising country star one of the genre’s most exciting new artists and one of its most authentic and relatable voices. One part endless party, one part unmitigated honesty, and one part best friend who always gives it to you straight, even when it hurts, Priscilla Block’s debut album, Welcome to the Block Party, finds an artist who is redefining ‘three chords and the truth’ for an entirely new generation.

Though she came to prominence in 2020, Block’s rise has been years in the making, full of hard work, long hours, and country grit. Originally from Raleigh, NC, she moved to Nashville to pursue music shortly after high school after being encouraged by her mom to pick up the guitar when she found one in the attic of the house she shared with her four siblings.

Block and her band were gaining some momentum when they got a brutal blow, along with the rest of the world –the Covid-19 pandemic hit, and she was stuck on lockdown. She had been writing songs nonstop before March 2020, but she’d never quite thought about sharing them explicitly on social media until the pandemic hit. Having moved out of her apartment into a house shared by random Craigslist roommates, she needed something to fill the dreary days.

TikTok, while thoroughly driving pop culture in myriad ways, had not yet made inroads with a country fanbase: until Block came along. When she started posting songs like “Thick Thighs” and “PMS” in the middle of lockdown, to continue to share her music with her fans, she would never have imagined that she would soon top the iTunes Country and All-Genre song charts.

Soon after, Block signed her record deal and was on her way to making a self-titled EP, followed by her first full-length album: Welcome to the Block Party, named for how she refers to her signature sound of country pop and southern rock that is as rowdy as it can be tender and confessional.

Since “Just About Over You,” her fans have waited patiently for her own full-length debut. That time has come: Welcome to the Block Party is the perfect meeting place for both listeners new and old, with Block showing multiple sides of her artistry but never abandoning what fans fell in love with from the very beginning. Hilarious and brazenly honest (“I’ve been eating carbs since ’95,” she sings) “Thick Thighs” offered a perspective far too unheard of in the land of manicured celebrity, and it was an overnight success. Her blunt –and twangily infectious –lyrics helped Block amass not only a huge social media following but a growing and dedicated fanbase as well.

Welcome to the Block Party is this approach in album form. From the songs like “Heels in Hand” and “Ever Since You Left” that detail the many dynamics of a relationship from the crying to the kiss-offs, to “My Bar” that flips the genre’s gender roles, to the album’s closer “Peaked in High School,” written as a victory lap for anyone who may not have been the homecoming king or queen.

Pegged as a 2021 Artist to Watch by Amazon Music, PANDORA, Spotify, CMT, The Boot, MusicRow, HITS, Sounds Like Nashville, Country Now, Music Mayhem and more, Block’s streaming has topped 250million and rising. With Welcome to the Block Party, Block rolls out the welcome mat even further, because she’s truly just getting started.