from the series Something I Said…
Review by DWIGHT HOBBES
A longer version of this Deeper Blues review first appeared in the June issue of Blue Monday Monthly Entertainment Magazine.
Andrea Swensson’s Deeper Blues: The Life, Songs and Salvation of Cornbread Harris (University of Minnesota Press) is a must-read. She brings acumen, insight and passion to bear on a beloved Twin Cities icon while Harris, crowding 100, is still around to enjoy it.
Calling Cornbread Harris a living legend understates the case. At the dawn of Minnesota Rock & Roll, he co-wrote The Augie Garcia Quintet’s trash-talking hit “Hi Ho Silver”, a humorous take off on TV’s “The Lone Ranger”. And enjoys the distinction of that band upstaging Elvis Presley’s Twin Cities debut. Swensson documents, “Cornbread and Augie wore this incident like a badge of honor. Speaking to the Star Tribune in 1993, Augie recalled that [Presley’s manager] ‘pulled me off stage by my jacket. There wasn’t supposed to be any competition.’” Harris still plays Twin Cities joints and presently presides over The Church of Cornbread, Sunday evenings at Palmer’s Bar, a venerable holdover from Minneapolis’ storied West Bank largely regarded as the best dive in town. Arguably his most enduring attribute is a marvelous ability to make his performances memorable. No matter where he’s on stage, Loring Pasta Bar, Clubhouse Jäger, Nomad World Pub, etc., it feels like you’re a guest in his living room.
No study of the subject would be complete without hearing from his star student and noted figure in his own right, Cadillac Kolstad, who told City Pages in 2009, “I watch everything he does, I listen to everything he does, I try to copy everything he does.” At one point the two aces settled into a mutually respectful rivalry, billing themselves on Sunday nights at Palmer’s as Cornbread vs. Cadillac. Swensson relates that an evening of such goings on is preserved on All the Fun (Cadillac Wax), complete with the crowd having one hell of a good time. This in a discography also listing solo outings, including Cornbread Harris Live at Nikki’s and Cornbread Harris and Friends Live the Hook & Ladder (Vol, 1, Vol. 2). She includes a pictured flyer for one of the friendly duels with Kolstad boasting, A KNOCK DOWN DRAG OUT MAKE YOUR WOMAN SHOUT BOUT”. There’s also a splendid shot of the two reuniting in 2023.
As you’d expect, it’s hard to have a music career and a marriage at the same time, even when you’re not struggling to make ends meet. Harris going great guns at it still wasn’t good enough. He recalls his breakup with one Dollie Shuck, “Oh yeah. Music was not an acceptable way of making a living five nights a week. You know? Man, money was just rolling in. Place was packed. But, you know, few people can take what an artist does – especially when they glom into their art very deeply. That shuts out a lot of contact you would have. So it was, ‘Which would rather have, a big band playing every night at some nice place or a home and a family. Well, that isn’t no decision even to make. It’s already made! Music, music, music.’” Even if he did have to work several day jobs at the same time.
The afterword is by his son, renowned music producer James “Jimmy Jam” Harris, Deeper Blues significantly dealing with their troubled relationship and their eventually working things out.
Any academic worth his or her salt could’ve dug up the requisite biographical facts. Andrea Swensson, in her signature style, affords personal, nonetheless professional, take on his fascinating career.
All said, this is an invaluable opportunity to get a good look at Cornbread Harris.
Dwight Hobbes is a long-time Twin Cities journalist and essayist.
