The Performing Arts Series at Shepherd will kick off its 2013-2014 season with a concert by blues fusion from the Corey Harris Band Thursday, Aug. 29, 2013 at 8 p.m. at the Frank Arts Center on the west campus of Shepherd University. Acoustic Delta blues guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Corey Harris has carved out his own niche, recording renditions of old songs in the blues tradition while creating an original vision of the genre by adding influences from reggae, soul, rock and West African music. With one foot in tradition and the other in contemporary experimentation, Harris is a truly unique voice in contemporary music. Harris has performed, recorded, and toured with many of the top names in music including B.B. King, Taj Mahal, Buddy Guy, Henry Ali, Farka Touré, Tracy Chapman and the Dave Matthews Band. Harris began his career as a New Orleans street singer, traveling throughout the Southern United States. In his early 20s, he lived in Cameroon, West Africa for a year, which had a profound effect on his later work. In 2003 Harris was a featured artist and narrator of Martin Scorcese’s film “Feel Like Going Home,” which traced the evolution of blues from West Africa to the Southern United States. 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. This year, the Corey Harris Band was selected by the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation’s American Masterpieces: [R]evolutionary Road Tour. The tour highlights a critically acclaimed new generation of artists working in quintessential American traditional music genres. This project is made possible through a grant from the MAAF program in partnership with the West Virginia Division of Culture and History, with approval from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Tickets are available for purchase at the Shepherd University Bookstore by calling 304-876-5219, or online at www.shepherdbook.com. Tickets are $15 general admission; $10 seniors/Shepherd staff; $5 for kids under 18. Concerts are free to Shepherd students with a Rambler ID. For more information, visit the Performing Arts Series at Shepherd website: www.shepherd.edu/passweb.