Spotlight Album Review: Greg Greenway & Reggie Harris: “Deeper Than The Skin"

Reggie Harris and Greg Greenway have been friends for more than 30 years.  Stalwarts in the contemporary folk community, they’ve had successful careers, as solo artists, as members of musical partnerships (Kim & Reggie Harris and Brother Sun) and regulars on the Phil Ochs Song Nights. Early on, they found they shared an interest in the place of race in America. That’s led now to a unique presentation, Deeper Than the Skin.

The album, they explain, “is a consolidation of live and studio performances” which document their conversations about race in music and spoken word. They’ve been offering them for several years at coffeehouses and concerts (I first heard them do it 18 months ago) and have perfected them to the point that a record was ready.

Deeper Than the Skin opens with Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come,” the traditional “Been Down into the South,” and Greg’s song (originally recorded by Brother Sun) “What Must Be Done.”  Those songs set the table for their candid, deeply personal reflections. It turns out they both have a connection to Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy. Greg was raised there at a time the civil rights movement was gaining momentum. Reggie, though raised in Philadelphia, had ancestors who had come to America on slave ships that landed in the area.    

The spoken sections are punctuated by songs, which, aside from several traditional tunes, draw on selections from their individual catalogues going back a number of years. They both address their heritage (Greg in “The Skin I’m In” and Reggie in “Hickory Hill”), while two songs near the end reflect the struggle to find common ground: Reggie’s “Windows of the Heart” and Greg’s “Come a Long Way” (another originally recorded by Brother Sun).

When Greg, Joe Jencks, and Pat Wictor were searching for a name for their trio, I suggested Kindred Spirits, though the world came to know and love them as Brother Sun. Still, Greg and Reggie are true kindred spirits, in spite of coming from different worlds. They are perfectly attuned to each other, both musically and spiritually. I selected this as the Sunday Supper Spotlight album before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, but its honesty and compassion are a needed salve for this moment in time. As they say in a liner note:

“It’s an invitation to open your heart and mind to a story of shared humanity that resonates with your own.”   

Photo: Econosmith