African American Musical Traditions & Cultural Narratives
Focus Areas:
- Blues, heritage, storytelling in music, cultural preservation.
Key Activities:
- Artist-in-Residence: Corey Harris – Grammy-nominated blues guitarist and songwriter.
- Guest lectures, public performances, and student workshops.
- Community engagement projects in partnership with Africana Studies.
Featured Artist:
Blues and the Black Radical Tradition
March 2024 Concert
Acclaimed blues guitarist Corey Harris headlines the first-annual public concert in the Ann McIlhenny Harward Program for Culture and Music at Gettysburg College. This solo acoustic performance explores the role of the blues in the Black radical tradition.
The free concert and residency are inspired by Ann McIlhenny Harward. Ann, Don’s late wife, was an accomplished musician at an early age who understood music’s transformative power. She grew up in the town of Gettysburg, where her father and two of her children graduated from Gettysburg College. Ann’s life was immersed in higher education and she appreciated the value of a liberal arts approach where learning happens across disciplines and through unique and transformative experiences.
Corey Harris was born in Denver, Colorado to parents from Texas and Kentucky. He 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, 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. 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. His 1995 recording. Between Midnight and Day, is a tribute to the tradition of acoustic, blues. Subsequent recordings, such as Greens From the Garden (1999). Mississippi to Mali (2003), and Daily Bread (2005) show Harris’ maturation from interpreter to songwriter. 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.
He 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, The 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), Live Album/Turtle Island (2015), Live In Vienna Austria (2016), Live at New Orleans Jazz Fest (2016), Free Waterway (2019), The Insurrection Blues (2021).
In 2003 Harris was a featured artist and narrator of the Martin Scorcese film, “Feel Like Going Home,” which traced the evolution of blues from West Africa to the southern U.S. 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. The annual grant, which recognizes individuals from a wide range of disciplines who show creativity, originality and commitment to continued innovative work, described Harris as an artist who “forges an adventurous path marked by deliberate eclecticism.” That same year, he was also awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Bates College, in Lewiston, Maine. Albums: The Insurrection Blues (2021), Free Waterway (2019), Live at New Orleans Jazz Fest (2016), Live in Vienna Austria (2016), Live on Turtle Island (2015) Fulton Blues (2013), True Blues (2013), Father Sun, Mother Earth (2011), DC Blues (2010), Blu Black (2009), (2007), Daily Bread (2005), Mississippi To Mali (2003), Downhome Sophisticate (2002), Vu-Du Menz (2000), Greens From The Garden (1999), Fish Ain’t Bitin’ (1997), Between Midnight
