Olivia Block: The Mountains Pass

The Chicago-based composer on mountain stories, analog organs and her return to singing

In the summer of 2022, Olivia Block was staying up in the mountains of northern New Mexico, when local news reported that the first Mexican gray wolf had been seen in the area for over 90 years.

This female wolf named Asha was tracked with a radio collar – her journey had begun hundreds of miles away, in southeastern Arizona. She was traveling northward,…