Andrea Swensson is an author, radio host, and music journalist, and has spent the past 12 years passionately documenting the Minnesota music scene. She hosts a weekly program about that very topic, The Local Show, at Minnesota Public Radio’s 89.3 The Current, and contributes writing to the Local Current Blog in addition to publications like Mpls/St. Paul Magazine and organizations like Paisley Park, where she has written four tour guide books for Prince’s museum.

Andrea just released her first book, Got to Be Something Here: The Rise of the Minneapolis Sound, this fall through the University of Minnesota Press. The book begins in the year of Prince’s birth, 1958, with the recording of Minnesota’s first R&B record by a North Minneapolis band called the Big Ms, and traces the rise of that distinctive sound through two generations of political upheaval, rebellion, and artistic passion.

In addition to following Prince closely while he was alive, attending countless late-night jams at Paisley Park and meeting face-to-face with the icon, Andrea has also written extensively over the past year about the devastating loss of Prince, approaching the topic from a personal perspective and exploring the profound impact musicians have on their listeners’ lives.