Corey Harris

Although he is well versed in the early history of blues guitar, Corey Harris is no authenticity-obsessed preservationist. His raw, direct songs blend a considerable variety of influences -- from New Orleans to the Caribbean to Africa. After a childhood of listening to classic Delta blues, he travelled in Cameroon where he soaked up the complex polyrhythms of African music, and then went on to play the streets of New Orleans where he picked up reggae, soul, and rock.
Corey was a featured artist and… Show more narrator of Martin Scorcese's film, "Feel Like Going Home," which traces 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" which described Harris as an artist who "forges an adventurous path marked by deliberate eclecticism." That same year, he received an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Bates College. It's a great honor to have him on the Caffe Lena stage for the first time tonight.

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