“We Want Cornbread! Give Us Cornbread!”: Reviewing Andrea Swensson's <i>Deeper Blues</i>

Abstract Deeper Blues: The Life, Songs, and Salvation of Cornbread Harris (2024) is Andrea Swensson's second historiography of the Minneapolis Sound. Whereas Got to Be Something Here (2017) argues that the Minneapolis Sound is a hybrid of white and black musics, Deeper Blues is a biography of a beloved Minneapolis musician and the father of Jimmy Jam Harris, James “Cornbread” Harris Jr. In her narrative, Swensson foregrounds Cornbread's familial relationships, from birth to his reconciliation with Jimmy. This allows Swensson to tell another story: her relationships with the Harris men and her role in their rapprochement. However, as an account of musical figures, Swensson's narrative is out of tune. Through an analysis of Cornbread's song “Deeper Blues” and black American orality, this review places Cornbread and his music within the blues ethos, its sounds, traditions and sensibilities.