COREY HARRIS BAND

Acoustic guitar blues since the mid-1990s

2025 October 11 - Saturday
WV Culture Center
State Capitol Complex
Charleston WV

Corey Harris is a guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and band leader who has carved out his own niche in blues. A powerful singer and accomplished guitarist, he has appeared at venues throughout North America, Europe, Brazil, The Caribbean, West Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

He began his career as a New Orleans street singer, traveling 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. He has recorded many old songs of the blues tradition while also creating an original vision of the blues by adding influences from reggae, soul, rock and West African music.

Some of his imaginative compositions are marked by a deliberate eclecticism; other works stay true to the traditional blues formula of compelling vocals and down-home guitar. With one foot in tradition and the other in contemporary experimentation, Harris is a truly unique voice in contemporary music.

Corey Harris is one of blues' most faithful contemporary griots. Tracing the music back to its African roots, he has trekked all over the world to share these stories in song and in 2007 was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship Genius grant for unearthing and sharing that rich, connected history.

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