"I am not lucky. I am blessed."
Legendary Minnesota piano blues player, Cornbread Harris, returned to this message repeatedly in a recent Centerstage Minnesota interview.
The first time was just before launching into an off-the-cuff performance of the intro to "Deeper Blues," a song that inspired the title of his new biography, Deeper Blues: The Life, Songs and Salvation of Cornbread Harris.
We spoke to Harris from his home in the Twin Cities, alongside Andrea Swensson, Cornbread's friend and the author of the new book. The pair first met in 2017 when Harris performed at Minnesota Public Radio, where Swensson was working at the time.
"I was totally enchanted by his personality, and his talent, and his ability to entertain everyone in the room," Swensson said, "including the sound engineer, and photographer and everyone that was there that day."
Later, the two began to meet every Tuesday afternoon to talk about his life. The book formed out of those conversations.
It is impossible to talk about Minnesota music history without Cornbread's larger-than-life story. Born James Samuel Harris in Chicago in 1927, Cornbread lost both his parents by the age of 3. After years in the foster care system, Harris moved to St. Paul in the late 1930s to live with his grandparents.
In tandem with the book, Swensson released an accompanying album to help tell Cornbread's story, Anthology. The first recording of Cornbread comes by way of the Augie Garcia Quintet in "Going To Chicago." Featuring Cornbread on vocals and piano, it was released in 1955 as the B-side to "Hi Yo Silver," a record some consider Minnesota's first rock 'n' roll recording.
The now 97-year-old never imagined his career would play out this way — releasing a biography and album 69 years after that first recording, and continuing to play every Sunday at Palmer's Bar in Minneapolis.
"That's how this thing got [started], I'm a blessed dude, because it's got me shaking my head," Harris said, "How was I so successful?"
According to Swensson, they identified over 10 bands Harris played in throughout his career, and that only includes the ones he led. The Anthology covers 67 years of his recorded music, and there is even more out there.
Beyond his music, a key story of the biography is Cornbread's relationship with his son James Harris III, the famous record producer who goes by Jimmy Jam. Until the last few years, the pair was estranged, not speaking to each other for over two decades.
Swensson, with her numerous connections to the Minnesota music scene, helped to facilitate a meeting when Jimmy Jam passed through the Twin Cities, and the two slowly regrew their relationship.
Through his faith, Harris never gave up hope that he would reconnect with his son.
"When you see something good happening, don't blame me, OK?" he said. "He's [God] the one who's doing all this."
The biography and album are out now. For the complete conversation with Cornbread Harris and Andrea Swensson, listen above.
Centerstage Minnesota, Fridays at 2 p.m. and 10 p.m. on KAXE/KBXE, is made possible by the citizens of Minnesota through the Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.
