Corey Harris & Cedric Watson: True Blues

When two of America's most celebrated roots musicians share a stage, the result is something rare — a conversation between traditions that have always spoken the same language. Corey Harris is a singer, songwriter, and bluesman who began as a New Orleans street musician before traveling the world and performing with luminaries including B.B. King, Taj Mahal, Buddy Guy, R.L. Burnside, and Ali Farka Touré. Harris has earned critical acclaim as one of the few contemporary bluesmen able to channel the raw, direct emotion of acoustic Delta blues while drawing on a remarkable range of influences — from New Orleans to the Caribbean to West Africa — into richly expressive music that appeals to traditionalists and contemporary listeners alike. In 2007, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, commonly known as the "genius award,” with the Foundation describing him as an artist who "forges an adventurous path marked by deliberate eclecticism." Cedric Watson is a four-time Grammy-nominated fiddler, singer, accordionist, and songwriter who stands as one of the brightest talents to emerge in Cajun, Creole, and Zydeco music in a generation. Growing up in San Felipe, Texas, Watson developed a deep affinity for the old-style French songs of Southwest Louisiana, eventually making his way to Lafayette, where he immersed himself in the Creole musical community and began contributing to the continuity of its traditions. With an apparently bottomless repertoire, Watson moves from forgotten Creole melodies and obscure fiddle reels to modern zydeco, and is also a prolific songwriter who channels his diverse African, French, Native American, and Spanish ancestry into his own original sound.