Our “Traditions Summer Festival” continues this week with a concert featuring Kim and Reggie Harris.

Recorded in December of 2005 at the Hurdy Gurdy in Paramus, NJ, Kim and Reggie Harris present a set that includes traditional spirituals, the songs of Phil Ochs and some captivating original compositions. The concert touched upon a variety of themes and will be heard this Sunday July 23rd starting at 3pm ET on WFDU-FM’s TRADITIONS. (Many of our listeners might remember a memorable visit Kim and Reggie had with Bill Hahn on the show a few years back!)

Kim and Reggie have been making music together since they first met at a summer camp in 1974 (a story that Kim will relate in the concert broadcast!). They went to Temple University in Philadelphia where they began honing their performance skills at the various clubs and coffeehouses that make up the strong folk community in the City of Brotherly Love.

In 1980 they began touring in earnest, taking their music to clubs, universities, schools and other venues across the country. They became known for their exquisite harmonies, diverse song selection, and warm stage presence.

When they had an opportunity to perform at a school assembly in a school in Philadelphia in the early 80’s, they had to come up with a topic. Kim remembered attending a similar assembly when she was in 5th grade, and its them of The Underground Railroad stuck with her. The half hour program was well received and it sparked an interest in Kim and Reggie. They began collecting spirituals that were used by slaves in their quest for freedom and by 1984 they would record some of these songs on their first LP – “Music and the Underground Railroad“. That LP is long out of print, but in 1998 they would re-record the songs for their first Appleseed Recordings release – “Steal Away – Songs of the Underground Railroad“.

Kim and Reggie have now recorded five CD’s on the Appleseed label, with their latest release “
“Let My People Go! A Jewish and African American Celebration of Freedom“. Recorded with Rabbi Jonathan Kligler, the spiritual leader of Kehillat Lev Shalem of the Woodstock Jewish Congregation in upstate New York, the recording shows the analogy between the Passover Cedar, honoring the Jewish exodus out of slavery in Egypt, and the Civil Rights movement, the African-American struggle for equality.

Kim and Reggie average 275 performances each year! They also participate in the Phil Ochs Song Nights concert series put together by Sonny Ochs. There will be two Phil Ochs Song nights in our area in October – Saturday, Oct. 28, 2006 at the People’s Voice Cafe in NYC and on Sunday, Oct. 29, 2006 at the Towne Crier in Pawling, NY.

When not on the road or in the recording studio, Reggie coaches girls varsity basketball and Kim recently earned a Master of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary . Kim’s master thesis was an opera that she composed, entitled “Friends of Freedom: An Underground Railroad Story“. The opera has been presented at various churches, synagogues and schools in the northeast.

Be sure to tune in this Sunday for Kim and Reggie Harris in concert! If you are in the NYC metro area you can listen in via 89.1, or listen to our live stream through our website – www.wfdu.fm .