The first rock ‘n’ roll record to come out of Minnesota features a legend of local Black music history, Jimmie “Cornbread” Harris.

Born in Chicago in 1927, and raised around the Midwest, Harris moved in with his grandparents in St. Paul by age 11. He went from skipping his piano lessons – and buying treats with the money meant for his teacher – to playing for his fellow soldiers at a training base in Alabama while serving in the U.S. Army. By the mid-1950s, Harris was back in Minnesota and deepening his skills as a performer. One night, after working at American Hoist and Derrick in downtown St. Paul, Cornbread made a historical connection with singer Augie Garcia and his drummer Johnny Lopez.

From Andrea Swensson’s forthcoming book about Cornbread Harris, Deeper Blues:

As Cornbread remembered it, their initial conversation as a trio was pretty straightforward: “Oh, I’m a drummer.” “Oh, I’m a guitar player!” “Oh, I’m a piano player!” they each said, realizing they had the ingredients for a basic rock band. Garcia had already secured a gig playing at the River Road Club down in Mendota, Minnesota, just a few miles down the Mississippi River from the bar where they all met, and before they finished their drinks Cornbread had an invitation to dust off the club’s old piano and join them on stage.

By 1954, they became the Augie Garcia Quintet — including Cornbread, Garcia, Lopez, bassist Teddy Guzman, and Cornbread’s friend Willy Brown on saxophone. They played now-defunct clubs like Duffy's in Minneapolis and Mendota's River Road Club. They also got to work creating their own spin on the rock ‘n’ roll sound, with Cornbread’s piano stylings heavily influencing the shuffling rhythm of the group.

One of the tunes Cornbread eagerly brought to the group was “Going to Chicago,” a song originally in 1941 written by Count Basie and vocalist Jimmy Rushing. 

“Going to Chicago” paved the way for the quintet’s biggest hit: “Hi Ho Silver,” which was printed with a typo on the label — Hi Yo instead of Hi Ho — in 1955 as a single, with “Going to Chicago” on the b-side.

Many consider that 45 of “Hi Ho Silver” to be Minnesota’s very first rock ‘n’ roll record.

You can learn more about Cornbread Harris here and here, and by reading the chapter about Cornbread’s time in the Augie Garcia Quintet in the forthcoming book Deeper Blues: The Life, Songs, and Salvation of Cornbread Harris by Andrea Swensson, out this summer on University of Minnesota Press.