After an early ’80s invitation to present a school assembly kindled musicians Kim and Reggie Harris’s passion for songs about the pre-Civil War Underground Railroad, their commitment to sharing the spirit, tradition and hidden messages of those gospel and folk songs became a lifelong calling.

Their very first album, 1984’s long-out-of-print Music and the Underground Railroad, contained a selection of historical songs used by African American slaves as hope, solace, and as a source of coded information about escaping the South and heading north on the metaphorical railroad.

The Harrises’ first Appleseed CD, 1998’s Steal Away: Songs of the Underground Railroad, continued the Harrises’ mission. They re-recorded many of the tracks from Music and the Underground Railroad, added two recordings from that first album and created a 16-song musical statement that has become an important cultural document and teaching tool. They subsequently produced, in collaboration with Chatham Hill Games, the “Underground Railroad Activity Set,” a video, game, and teaching guide for use by parents and teachers, and have become in-demand workshop presenters on the subjects of the Underground Railroad, the modern Civil Rights Movement, and African American Music of Social Change.

In 2007, Appleseed released the long awaited sequel to Steal Away – Get On Board! Underground Railroad & Civil Rights Freedom Songs, Volume 2.

Kim’s liner notes to Steal Away explain the Harrises’ fascination with that invisible track to freedom: “The Underground Railroad, as we are fond of saying, was NOT a train . . . it was people . . . a rainbow coalition of various backgrounds, beliefs, colors and creeds who, in a variety of ways, created a lifeline out of slavery in pre-Civil War America. The songs, beautiful . . . rich in spirit and texture, reveal the hope, power and ingenuity of an enslaved people who used their traditions, passion and resources to express their faith, strengthen their relationships and communicate important information that led many of them to freedom! We present these songs as contemporary artists of our time seeking to honor the tradition and spirit of the music through the prism of our own musical experience and evolution. We offer this work as a loving tribute to the courage of the travelers, conductors, agents, shepherds and crews of the Liberty Line and also as a reminder that the struggle for freedom, equality, and for the future, is now in our hands!”

Countless audiences, teachers, parents, and children and numerous Black history museums and organizations have gratefully accepted the Harrises’ gift of education and entertainment.

other releases:

Resurrection Day

Get On Board: Underground Railroad & Freedom Songs Vol 2

Simplicity

Rock of Ages

Guide My Feet

Let My People Go!

also appears on:

Where Have All the Flowers Gone? The Songs of Pete Seeger, Vol 1

The Songs of Pete Seeger Vol 2 If I Had a Song

The Songs of Pete Seeger Vol 3 Seeds

Sowing the Seeds - The 10th Anniversary