Enjoy 'True Blues' with Corey Harris & Eric Bibb
The Fermilab Arts and Lecture Series will present True Blues with Corey Harris & Eric Bibb at 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 30, in the Ramsey Auditorium at Fermilab, off Pine Street in Batavia.
Tickets are $28 or $14 for ages 18 or younger. Tickets available online with no fees www.fnal.gov/culture until noon on Friday; by phone at (630) 840-ARTS until 4 p.m. Friday, or at the Ramsey Auditorium box office starting at 7 p.m. Saturday
When director Martin Scorsese decided to pay homage to the Delta blues in "Long Way Home," he engaged musician and MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Corey Harris to host this story that took him through Mississippi and on to West Africa, exploring the roots of the music. Now this rich tapestry of different cultures comes to the stage in an evening of music and conversation. Corey Harris is joined by award-winning singer and songwriter Eric Bibb to bring "True Blues" to Ramsey Auditorium.
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 the 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 20s, 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. He has performed, recorded, and toured with many of the top names in music such as BB King, Taj Mahal, Buddy Guy, R.L. Burnside, Ali Farka Toure, Dave Matthews Band, Tracy Chapman, Olu Dara, Wilco, and others.
Already enjoying success in Europe, Grammy nominee Eric Bibb is becoming a familiar face - and voice - in the U.S. Nominated for nine W.C. Handy Blues Music Awards and winner of the Best Newcomer title in the British Blues Awards, the native New Yorker has deep roots in the American blues and folk tradition. The son of 1960s folk and musical theater singer and television personality Leon Bibb, Eric's uncle was the jazz pianist and composer John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet, and Paul Robeson was his godfather. As a boy, he was surrounded by major musical figures of the times. By age 19, he was playing in Parisian restaurants, and has been based primarily in Europe ever since. A breakout performance at the 1996 London Blues Festival catapulted Eric to a higher level of visibility, especially in Britain. Since then he has toured the world, performing at major festivals like the Glastonbury Cambridge Folk Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, Chicago World Music Festival and more. He joined Robert Cray on U.S. tours in 2001-02 and opened shows for Ray Charles. As a recording artist, Bibb earned a Grammy nomination for his collaboration (with Taj Mahal and others) on the children's record, "Shakin' A Tailfeather."