Priscilla Block's journey from viral renown to developing a party-ready Music City brand

Priscilla Block is a fan of rowdy singalongs at dive-bar parties in Music City.

In six months, she'll be appearing as an opening act in front of 20,000 screaming Shania Twain fanatics at amphitheaters nationwide. First, however, she's preparing to close a year that's seen her fame rise from a COVID-era TikTok breakout to navigating the road to entrenching herself as a staple of country radio as a headliner somewhere markedly different:

The Nashville Palace.

Yes, the same place where Randy Travis both grilled cheeseburgers and sang to crowds just south of 1,000 people in the shadow of the Grand Ole Opry is where Block will be joined by newly signed Universal Music Group artist Dalton Dover for a Nov. 3 performance on her roughly two-dozen date "Welcome to the Block Party Tour."

Getting "slightly hungover in one of Nashville's last honky-tonks" is Block's goal for the evening. It's a familiar event for the singer-songwriter who, before 2020, was a front-room performer at the venue. Moreover, it'll close out a tour of similarly-sized intimate venues where capacity crowds knowing all the words to her songs.

"It's the coolest thing ever," Block said.

Block's growing establishment as an artist is more authentic to the modern Music City experience than most label-signed performers in town.

Five seconds into her 2022 single "Off The Deep End," she's already extolled the virtues of "going too hard" and being "bats**t crazy" down on Lower Broadway. Her video for the 2021 single "Wish You Were The Whiskey" takes place at midtown's Losers Bar and Grill, beloved by midweek partiers fond of events like the popular Whiskey Jam concert series.

"Dude. I like to have a good time," said Block, chuckling upon being asked about her love for Nashville's party scene. "I love songs that make you want to dance and put you in a good headspace. Or songs that serve as the ultimate girls night soundtrack."

Copious amounts of the color blue, high ponytail hairdos, hoop earrings, bandannas and attempts to achieve a blinding level of blinged-out gold chains are Block's calling cards of success. From being four months behind on rent and recovering from soul-crushing heartbreak to concerning herself with the link between visual branding and top-tier success is an enjoyable 180-degree twist of fate for the 27-year-old Raleigh, North Carolina, native.

She notes that she's "very intentional" in her desire to "not do what everyone else is doing."

"When people latch onto an artist and become a fan, it's because they enjoy the picture they see of them in their mind," Block said.

Strong branding and an easy familiarity with her music have allowed her to achieve two breakthrough top-30 singles at country radio: her unlikely, COVID-era hit "Just About Over You" and its follow-up "My Bar." The former gained acclaim from the New York Times as a "self-aware and lightly comic feminist pop-country song." The latter tells the tale of a weeknight barfly whose communal relationship with her favorite watering hole supersedes her broken-hearted angst over an ex-boyfriend she met there.

She feels fortunate to be achieving steady, sustained success on the radio after being launched as a new artist during a global pandemic. "Proving myself by making hits" is her governing ethos.

Ten years into her time in Nashville, her story is less defined by how she's arrived than by why she can achieve.

Her latest single is the Justin Moore collaboration "You, Me and Whiskey." Block's playlists while a bar band, cover song vocalist included many of Moore's 15 years of No. 1 Billboard Country Airplay chart hits. Though often reserved about collaborations, she said receiving the call from Moore resulted in an "easy yes."

The new single is "organic" and "authentic" to Block's life.

"I feel like I wrote it," said Block about the rock-styled duet about the trials and tribulations of young love written by Jessi Alexander, Brock Berryhill and Cole Taylor.

Continuing from previous successes, Block's duet was the second most added song of the week behind Luke Combs upon its release to radio on Oct. 24. Plus it has achieved nearly 5 million streams in under a month.

"Fans have loved hearing about my life so far, and now I'm getting to work with some of the best songwriters in the world to tell my story," Block said. "I'm inspired and high on life right now."

When asked where she thinks she'll be by the time she hits the stage as an opener for Shania Twain in 2023, she offers her thoughts.

"I'm being exposed to many more people while still being a 'new' artist searching for that breakout hit. But the crowds also sound ten times louder than they did earlier in the year. So I'm excited and want to keep this momentum going."

Tickets to see Priscilla Block at the Nashville Palace are available at https://www.outhousetickets.com.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Priscilla Block's journey from viral renown to developing a brand