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“The blues is the blueprint,” says blues and reggae musician Corey Harris, who will take over as the Artistic Director of the Port Townsend Country Blues Festival in 2009. “You can go from that blueprint and build whatever house you want," Harris says. "That’s something that we as black Americans have given to the world: the concept of the blues. But at the same time, I'm of a different generation. I didn't ever have to go to the back of a bus. If I was out on the road, I wouldn't have to camp in my car because they wouldn't let black people in the hotel. So I'm trying to represent what my tradition is, and then represent my individual self in the contemporary moment."
The Port Townsend Country Blues Festival is known nationally as a week-long, total-immersion experience that passes down the skills, sounds, stories, laughter, and pain of the authentic bearers of the acoustic country blues tradition. Nights feature intimate faculty-led house parties and night-long jamming, dancing, and special events. The Festival culminates on Friday and Saturday with mainstage and club performances at Fort Worden and in the venues of downtown Port Townsend.
In September 2007 The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced that Harris is among 24 people named MacArthur Fellows for 2007. The award comes with $500,000 to be given over five years. The Port Townsend Country Blues July 26 - August 2009
