Album Notes

The song One Family /One Planet is but one of the many songs written by the duo “Kim and Reggie Harris that embraces the spirit of the great Dr Martin Luther King Jr. The all Music Guide writes: “The stirring husband-and-wife folk duo of Kim & Reggie Harris combine a love of music and social vision into accomplished, heartfelt songs.”
Kim and Reggie use solid melodies and compelling creative harmonies coupled with a strong folk and gospel legacy and a solid cross genre background to create music that makes audiences feel vibrant and connected! Their collaborations and interactions with performers such as Pete Seeger, Ysaye Barnwell, Janis Ian, Tom Paxton, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Harry Belafonte and others, has led them to produce music that entertains and inspires.
Born and raised in the rich cultural Philadelphia, PA, Kim and Reggie’s early exposure to the diversity of musical styles and genres was nurtured in the schools and churches of their youth. They have taken that start to amazing heights with performances around the world at venues such as The Kennedy Center, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Smithsonian Institute, the Reunion Arena in Texas, the Psalm Festival in Graz, Austria along with numerous theater arts centers, music festivals and universities.
Among other high-profile appearances, Kim and Reggie performed at the opening of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, and twice at the the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
The Philadelphia Daily News wrote, "Kim and Reggie Harris inspire a sense of joy.....an exhilaration that lifts the soul that makes you want to sing and celebrate your neighbor!! They produce music that makes you come alive!”
With 6 solo recordings on the Appleseed recordings label and one on Folk Era Records Kim and Reggie are also featured on a number of compilations, short films and educational projects worldwide. Writing songs separately, together, and with musicians like Ken Whiteley of Toronto, Canada, the Harrises’ compositions address politics, the rewards and pitfalls of love, the enviroment, sacred themes, domestic violence, the interior issues in families,, and social activism. Their hilarious 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).
They are widely acclaimed as two of the leading interpreters of the music of the Underground Railroad and the Modern Civil Rights Movements and have two releases on the subjects.. "Steal Away" Songs of the Underground Railroad" and "Get On Board".
Kim and Reggie have 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 Kim and Reggie 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.
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.
The One Family/ One Planet song was written as song of tribute to the work of Dr King, for their family show of the same name, in the hope that it will inspires listeners to take action to build community and keep his dream alive of hope!!
www.kimandreggie.com