ISSUED: 19 August 2013
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — The Performing Arts Series at Shepherd University will kick off its 2013-14 season with a blues fusion concert by the Corey Harris Band Thursday, August 29, at 8 p.m. at the Frank Center Theater.
Acoustic Delta blues guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter Corey Harris has carved out his own niche, recording renditions of old songs in the blues tradition while creating an original vision of the genre by adding influences from reggae, soul, rock, and West African music. With one foot in tradition and the other in contemporary experimentation, Harris is a unique voice in contemporary music.
The 2007 MacArthur Fellowship “Genius Award” recipient has performed, recorded, and toured with many of the top names in music, including B.B. King, Taj Mahal, Buddy Guy, Henry Ali Farka Touré, Tracy Chapman, and the Dave Matthews Band.
Harris began his career as a New Orleans street singer, traveling throughout the southern U.S. In his early 20s he lived in Cameroon, West Africa, for a year, which had a profound effect on his later work.
In 2003 Harris was a featured artist and narrator of Martin Scorcese’s film “Feel Like Going Home” which traced the evolution of blues from West Africa to the southern United States.
In 2007, he was awarded a $500,000 MacArthur Fellowship — commonly referred to as a “Genius Award” — from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
This year the Corey Harris Band was selected to join the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation’s American Masterpieces: [r]evolutionary road Tour. The tour highlights a critically acclaimed new generation of artists working in quintessential American traditional music genres. This project is made possible through a grant from the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation’s American Masterpieces program in partnership with the West Virginia Division of Culture and History, with approval from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Tickets are available at the Shepherd University Bookstore, by calling 304-876-5219, or online at www.shepherdbook.com and are $15 for general admission; $10 for seniors/Shepherd staff; and $5 for kids under 18. Concerts are free for Shepherd students with Rambler ID. For more information, visit the Performing Arts Series at Shepherd website: www.shepherd.edu/passweb.
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