Corey Harris & The Rasta Blues Experience Perform at
The Asheville Music Hall on Sat 9/6
8pm doors/ 9pm show; Opener TBD; 18+; $12/$15
31 Patton Avenue
Asheville, NC 28801
www.AshevilleMusicHall.com
Corey Harris and the Rasta Blues Experience are traveling for some select shows including a couple of shows in Virginia in late August, The Asheville Music Hall on September 6th, and at the Garfield Center for the Arts in Chestertown Maryland on October 10th.
Corey Harris and Rasta Blues Experience have been been traveling with their recent album, Fulton Blues [2013 Stable Roots Productions]. Fulton Blues is rooted in the blues tradition with true story-telling and soulful musicianship. It marked the next step in the nearly twenty-year career of today’s most daring and innovative acoustic blues player. Corey Harris and the Rasta Blue Experience is Corey Harris on Acoustic/Electric Guitar, Banjo, Lead & Background Vocals; Hook Herrera on Harmonica; Chris “Thelonious Nut” Whitley on Piano & Organ; Kenneth “Trini Joe” Joseph on Drums; Gordon “Saxman” Jones on Tenor/Alto/Baritone Sax; and Jayson “Brother J” Morgan on Bass.
Fulton is a community in Richmond, VA that is older than the city itself. From its docks on the James river, the first African captives were marched to the city’s slave market to be sold into bondage. This Black town on the east end of the city endured for more than 300 years until its land was seized and the families living there were forcibly evicted in the name of greed masquerading as progress. Fulton Blues is a collection of both original and classic material, that celebrates the timeless sound of traditional blues with fresh, insightful lyrics that paint an unflinching picture of life in the American South, both then and now. The stories in the fourteen songs on the album range from love, loss and longing to celebration, tragedy and triumph.
This November, Harris pays a number of shows with Taj Mahal, Shemekia Copeland, Guy Davis, Alvin Youngblood Hart, and Phil Wiggins as part of True Blues, a multi-media a celebration of the contemporary African-American performers of traditional acoustic blues. The project includes an album in 2013 , a variety of concert performances, and a DVD that will be released in the winter of 2014 through Telarc Records. Watch the DVD Trailer here:
In the spring of 2014, PBS released a Corey Harris special DVD, Journeys, that aired on public television by the The American Music Research Foundation (AMRF), producers of the award winning Motor City Blues and Boogie Woogie Series of Public TV Programs. Watch a clip from it here: www.amrf.net/video-corey.htm.
Journeys presents the Harris performing solo as well as duets with harmonica maestro Phil Wiggins, harmonies with special guest Thornetta Davis, and with the Rasta Blues Experience connecting musical dots from Africa to the Americas. “If you don’t have any idea where your traditions, where your culture, where your popular culture comes from, that’s a problem,” says Harris, who is dedicated to keeping the Blues alive.”That’s what makes people unique, is that knowledge about where they’re coming from.”
Corey Harris knows where his traditions and culture and music come from, which is why Martin Scorsese chose him as a featured artist and narrator to take viewers on a musical journey from Mississippi to West Africa in “Feel Like Going Home,” the first episode of his celebrated PBS series “The Blues” in 2003.
Corey can surely play the Blues too, and there is nothing ossified about his performances. He also plays African music, reggae, soul and jazz, and uses his mastery of the instruments, the complex cadences and rhythms, and the feelings of the music that evolved in the New World via the African diaspora to create something entirely new. Some call it “Progressive Blues.”
In 2007, he was awarded a $500,000 MacArthur Fellowship – commonly referred to as a “genius award.” “Corey Harris forges an adventurous path marked by deliberate eclecticism. With one foot in tradition and the other in contemporary experimentation, he blends musical styles often considered separate and distinct to create something entirely new, says the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. That same year, he was also awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Bates College, in Lewiston, Maine.
Corey has performed, recorded, and toured with many of the top names in music such as BB King, Taj Mahal, Buddy Guy, Henry Butler, R.L.Burnside, John Jackson, Ali Farka Toure, Dave Matthews Band, Tracy Chapman, Olu Dara, Wilco, Natalie Merchant, and others. His additional recordings include Fish Ain’t Bitin’ (1996), Vu-Du Menz (with Henry Butler, 2000), Downhome Sophisticate (2002), Zion Crossroads (2007), blu black (2009 ), DC Blues (2010), Father Sun-Mother Earth (2011), Fulton Blues (2013), True Blues (with Taj Mahal, Shemeka Copeland, Guy Davis, Alvin Hart and Phil Wiggins (2013).
Kind words about Corey Harris:
“Corey Harris takes a decidedly anthropological and academic approach to the blues, deeply researching its variants and origins, and he’s become adept at combining West African, Jamaican, and Creole rhythms with traditional country blues forms in a manner so natural that the cracks and fissures between now and then and between here and there never seem to show.” —Steve Leggett, All Music Guide
“Corey Harris writes from the heart, and his music is real, never cliché. He is like the minstrels of old who would travel conveying news of the day, and educating people to goings on in the world they lived in, but might not necessarily see. Like the minstrels of old, Harris also weaves stories of times past, but not forgotten. His writing gives life to these times and events, conjuring up vivid images for us to experience.” —Barry Kerzner, American Blues Scene
Corey Harris On Tour
Aug 22 2014 – Aug 23 2014 Solo Show – Ogden Roots & Blues Festival, Liberty UT*
Aug 29 2014 – Fri – The Hot Spot, Waynesboro VA ^
Aug 30 2014 – Sat – Front Porch Festival, Patrick County VA ^
Sep 06 2014 – Sat – Asheville Music Hall, Asheville NC ^
Oct 10 2014 – Fri – Garfield Center for the Arts, Chestertown MD ^
Nov 01 2014 – Sat – McIntyre Performing Arts Center, Mt. Vernon WA %
Nov 02 2014 – Sun – Earshot Festival-The Triple Door, Seattle WA %
Nov 07 2014 – Fri – The Abby Theater, Hardwick MA %
Nov 08 2014 – Sat – Monmouth University, Long Branch NJ %
Nov 22 2014 – Sat – Wolf Hills Brewing Co, Abingdon VA %
* solo show
^ Corey Harris and the Rasta Blues Experience
% True Blues Show w/ Taj Mahal, Shemekia Copeland, Guy Davis, Alvin Youngblood Hart, and Phil Wiggins
For more information and further tour dates, please visit www.corey-harris.com.
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