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May 20, 2021REGGIE HARRIS Gala CD Release Concert 5/22 Musicians Gather for 8th Step: On Solid Ground
The Eighth Step presents international touring artist, songwriter and performer REGGIE HARRIS – fluid singer, and uniquely powerful guitarist – celebrating his new CD On Solid Ground, joined onstage by guest musicians in a concert livestreamed on music platform Mandolin.com at 7:00 PM EST, Saturday, May 22, 2021, 8th Step at Proctors (GE Theatre), 432 State Street, Schenectady. This concert is part 2 of a double-event CD release that began in March as a rich, in-depth conversation between Harris and Wanda Fischer (WAMC-fm), livestreamed from Proctors Mainstage.
On May 22, Reggie Harris will perform side-by-side, onstage with an ensemble of musical masters: Greg Greenway (guitar, piano, uke); Pat Wictor (6-string & slide guitars); Brian Melick (percussion); and Mark Murphy (bass). Also on hand is special guest vocalist Colleen Kattau.
Following on the heels of his critically acclaimed CDs Ready to Go (2018) and Deeper Than the Skin (2019), ON SOLID GROUND is Harris’ timely new 14-track collection, inspired by the explosion of racial awareness and change that confronts America and the world. The CD features ten new originals, and four songs by others chosen and interpreted for their power and inspiration.
On Solid Ground chronicles the past Pandemic year of political upheaval, love and isolation, bringing us to question who we are as individual Americans, and re-focusing us most of all on who we wish to become as a nation. His original music, choices of borrowed songs and finely crafted lyrical messages are filtered through the experience of a respected and beloved artist: an African American man who has faced everyday bias throughout his life; the descendent of a 19th Century Southern plantation owner and his slave; a Black man who successfully forged a relationship with White cousins, descendants of that same slaveowner. In his powerfully joyful signature sound, Reggie Harris surely names the evils bedeviling us, then like the Pied Piper musically inspires us to help make the myth of American Exceptionalism a future reality.
Tickets are $20 General Admission; $30 Groups; $10 Students; $50 Music Supporter; and $5 Unemployed/Laid Off. Tickets are available in advance through the 8th Step website www.8thstep.org.
