×
×
homepage logo

Performing Arts Series kicks off

By Staff | Aug 23, 2013

The Performing Arts Series at Shepherd will kick off its 2013-14 season with a concert by blues fusion from the Corey Harris Band Thursday, Aug. 29 at 8 p.m. at the Frank Arts Center Theater on the West Campus of Shepherd University.

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 truly unique voice in contemporary music. The 2007 MacArthur Fellowship Genius Award recipient, Harris has performed, recorded, and toured with many of the top names in music including B.B. King, Taj Mahal, Buddy Guy, Henry Ali Farka Tour, Tracy Chapman, and the Dave Matthews Band.

Harris began his career as a New Orleans street singer, travelling throughout the southern U.S. In his early twenties 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 Scorceses 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 by the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundations 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 Foundations 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 for purchase at the Shepherd University Bookstore, by calling 304-876-5219, or online at www.shepherdbook.com. $15 general admission; $150seniors/Shepherd staff; $5 for kids under 18. Single concert tickets are $15 general admission; $10 seniors/Shepherd staff; $5 for kids under 18. Concerts are free to Shepherd Students with Rambler ID. For more information, visit the Performing Arts Series at Shepherd website: www.shepherd.edu/passweb