Deeper Blues

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.… Read the rest “Deeper Blues”