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Kim and Reggie Harris
Kim and Reggie Harris will never be confused with the legions of navel-gazing singer-songwriters who drift into the category of “contemporary folk.” For over 30 years, the duo has been performing contemporary and traditional songs that target societal ills and proffer positive social messages.
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pa., both Kim and Reggie were exposed to a wide range of music through their childhoods. After meeting at summer camp in 1974, the duo continued their friendship that fall at Temple University. As their personal relationship deepened, they began combining their voices and Reggie’s acoustic guitar playing in performances at local Philadelphia clubs and coffeehouses. Married in 1976, the duo began a touring schedule in 1980 that still averages more than 200 yearly appearances.
Their best-known recordings are Steal Away: Songs of the Underground Railroad (1998) and its 2007 sequel, Get On Board: Underground Railroad & Civil Rights Freedom Songs, Volume 2, both on the Appleseed Recordings label.
Writing songs separately, together, and with other musicians, the Harrises’ compositions have addressed politics, domestic violence, families, the rewards and pitfalls of love, and a constant underlying theme of social activism. Their tribute to automobile seatbelts, “Passive Restraint,” has been featured on National Public Radio’s syndicated “Car Talk!” program (and can be found on their Rock of Ages CD on Appleseed). With an additional repertoire of spirituals and freedom songs drawn from their heritage and ongoing studies and impeccable taste in the songs of other songwriters, Kim and Reggie’s recordings and performances offer a rich array of thought-provoking entertainment that includes imaginative instrumental arrangements and spectacular solo voices and harmonies.
The Harrises have long held a special affinity for the songs of the late Phil Ochs, the Sixties folksinger-songwriter who exemplified the social conscience of the era’s musical protest movement. Kim and Reggie are mainstays of a group of musicians who have toured the country for the past 16 years, keeping Ochs’ music alive in a series of Phil Ochs Song Nights. Ochs’ “What’s That I Hear” was recorded by the Harrises on 2005’s Let My People Go! A Jewish & African American Celebration of Freedom, a joint CD with Rabbi Jonathan Kligler that compares the story of the Jewish exodus from Egypt in the 13th Century B.C.E. with the African American struggle for equality in the mid-1960s.
Kim and Reg have also composed and arranged music for television, radio, video and multi-media presentations. As part of their ongoing work in education, they are presenters for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts touring workshop program, providing teacher training that encourages the use of arts in the classroom. Among other high-profile appearances, Kim and Reggie have performed at the opening of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, at the Kennedy Center, Smithsonian Institute, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame & Museum, the Philadelphia and Falcon Ridge Folk Festivals, and the International Children’s Festival.
Most recently, Kim has earned her Master of Divinity degree at New York’s Union Theological Seminary, where she now lectures, and is working as an adjunct professor at the College of St. Rose in Albany, NY, and as an artist in resident for the New Brunswick Theological Seminary in New Brunswick, NJ. She has also become involved in Operation Respect, a non-profit organization founded by musician/activist Peter Yarrow that works to assure children a safe, compassionate climate of learning where their academic, social and emotional development can take place free of bullying, ridicule and violence. Meanwhile, Reggie continues his volunteer work as a basketball coach and youth mentor in the Harrises’ upstate New York community.
For more information on the Harrises’ CDs on Appleseed Recordings, please visit: www.appleseedrec.com
