Annye C. Anderson is a retired educator and administrator of the Boston Public Schools in Massachusetts.Preston Lauterbach is the author of Bluff City, Beale Street Dynasty, and The Chitlin Circuit. He lives near Charlottesville, VA.
"Brother Robert is, by my count, the twelfth book about Johnson,
and it's one of the best, because after decades of stories of the
musician as a dark blues lord, Brother Robert, which featured a new
photo of him smiling on the cover, humanizes Johnson, showing the
musician from the perspective of a young girl."--Texas Monthly
"[This book reveals] "new details about everything from Johnson's
birth to his romantic history to his life at home with family -
even his favourite foods and brands of tobacco and pomade. The book
also arrives with a new photograph of Johnson - just the third
confirmed image in the world."--CBC
"A breathtaking look into the provenance of one of the 20th
century's great musical minds, the social warp and woof of Black
Memphis in the 1920s and '30s, and, in spite of racial violence
that continues to this day, the persistence of family and the power
of music."--Memphis Flyer
"A remarkable book, one which so richly complements those that came
before it documenting Robert Johnson's life and legacy."--Under the
Radar Magazine
"Although it's been more than 80 years since Anderson last saw
Johnson, her memories are vivid and personal, as she recalls a
well-loved older sibling who entertained his family and community
with his guitar and vast repertoire of songs. [...] Anderson's
account debunks myths about Johnson: he had a loving family; he was
exposed to all kinds of popular music; he was not illiterate; and
he did not go to the crossroads and sell his soul to the devil.
Consider Anderson's heartfelt chronicle an earnest attempt to set
the record straight."--Booklist
"An illuminating portrait of an artist lost in the mists of history
and mystery."--Kirkus
"Anderson offers vivid, personal glimpses of her stepbrother ...
providing a colorful picture .... [An] earnest and enlightening
memoir."--Publishers Weekly
"Anderson's a charming storyteller, and her stories provide a fresh
perspective."--No Depression
"Annye Anderson's lush, vivid memories from Robert Johnson's home
base give the bluesman a personal dimension like never before. How
he walked, the pomade in his hair, his protection of his guitar.
The aura of mystery remains, but with Brother Robert, Johnson gains
character and context, and becomes more of a person than we've ever
known this specter to be."--RobertGordon, author of Can't Be
Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Watersand It Came From
Memphis
"Cutting through the mythos that has long surrounded this iconic
artist, this is an intriguing addition to the history of
20th-century blues."--Library Journal
"Mrs. Anderson summons up poignant memories of the young man she so
admired... If Johnson has become an idealised figure, Anderson's
book helps us to see him as a flesh-and-blood individual, an
entertainer rather than some tortured mystic."--The Times (UK)
A Rolling Stone-Kirkus Best Music Book of 2020 Winner of the
Audiofile Earphones Award Publishers Weekly, "Most Anticipated
Books of Spring 2020" No Depression, "Best Music Books of 2020"
Best Classic Bands, "Best Music Books of the Year" OnMilwaukee, "10
Great Books from 2020"
"[This book] paints a lively portrait of the African American
community in Memphis in the 1930s."--Daily Hampshire Gazette
"[Brother Robert} book does much to pull the blues master out of
the fog of myth." (A Rolling Stone-Kirkus Best Music Book of
2020)--Rolling Stone
"Intimate and warm."--No Depression
"Rich... there is an intimacy that fires the story to life."--New
York Review of Books
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