Rory Block and Alvin Youngblood Hart

Opposites attract? Aurora "Rory" Block and Alvin Youngblood Hart appear as opposite as you can get. Hart is male, black, a native of Oakland, California, and was raised a military brat. Block is female, white, a New Yorker, the daughter of a beatnik musician, and considerably older (she turns 54 on November 6). But musically, Block and Hart might as well be the same person: They keep the flame burning for old-fashioned acoustic blues, be they from the Mississippi Delta, the Carolina Piedmont, or East Texas's Hill Country.

Hart has done it through four CDs, starting with Big Mama's Door in 1996 (although release No. 3, Start With the Soul, was more Jimi Hendrix than Leadbelly). Block's discography lists 15 albums since 1981, the most recent being "Last Fair Deal," released last month by the Cleveland-based Telarc label. Otherwordly guitar work, passionate singing, and an unmistakable reverence for their influences will be the order of the evening, when these two crank up the time machine.