Brother Robert
Growing Up with Robert Johnson
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4.8 • 13 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A Rolling Stone-Kirkus Best Music Book of 2020
“[Brother Robert} book does much to pull the blues master out of the fog of myth.”—Rolling Stone
An intimate memoir by blues legend Robert Johnson's stepsister, including new details about his family, music, influences, tragic death, and musical afterlife
Though Robert Johnson was only twenty-seven years young and relatively unknown at the time of his tragic death in 1938, his enduring recordings have solidified his status as a progenitor of the Delta blues style. And yet, while his music has retained the steadfast devotion of modern listeners, much remains unknown about the man who penned and played these timeless tunes. Few people alive today actually remember what Johnson was really like, and those who do have largely upheld their silence-until now.
In Brother Robert, nonagenarian Annye C. Anderson sheds new light on a real-life figure largely obscured by his own legend: her kind and incredibly talented stepbrother, Robert Johnson. This book chronicles Johnson's unconventional path to stardom, from the harrowing story behind his illegitimate birth, to his first strum of the guitar on Anderson's father's knee, to the genre-defining recordings that would one day secure his legacy. Along the way, readers are gifted not only with Anderson's personal anecdotes, but with colorful recollections passed down to Anderson by members of their family-the people who knew Johnson best. Readers also learn about the contours of his working life in Memphis, never-before-disclosed details about his romantic history, and all of Johnson's favorite things, from foods and entertainers to brands of tobacco and pomade. Together, these stories don't just bring the mythologized Johnson back down to earth; they preserve both his memory and his integrity.
For decades, Anderson and her family have ignored the tall tales of Johnson "selling his soul to the devil" and the speculative to fictionalized accounts of his life that passed for biography. Brother Robert is here to set the record straight. Featuring a foreword by Elijah Wald and a Q&A with Anderson, Wald, Preston Lauterbach, and Peter Guralnick, this book paints a vivid portrait of an elusive figure who forever changed the musical landscape as we know it.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In conversation with journalist Lauterbach (Bluff City), Anderson offers vivid, personal glimpses of her stepbrother, legendary blues musician Robert Johnson (1911 1938), providing a colorful picture of the bluesman while attempting to debunk the myths surrounding him. In her earliest memory, an 18-year-old Johnson scoops up the three-year-old Anderson and carries her up the stairs to their new house in Memphis. She writes that her father taught the seven-year-old Johnson to play the guitar and recalls how much Johnson loved movies, especially Westerns, and that he wore a Stetson hat like his hero, actor Tom Mix. Anderson addresses the legend of Johnson selling his soul to the devil at the crossroads to become the world's greatest blues guitarist, arguing that the mythical event could never have taken place because her brother was a devout Baptist. Anderson also relays sordid stories of how two musicologists Steve LaVere and Mack McCormick swindled Anderson and her family out of Johnson's royalties, as well as family photos. She shares Johnson's deathbed prophecy ("I know that my Redeemer liveth and that He Will call me from the Grave"), and believes it "came true," since his reputation became bigger after his death. Anderson's earnest and enlightening memoir will please Johnson's listeners.
Customer Reviews
Warm and personal account of a misunderstood legend
I am amazed at how wrong my perceptions of Robert Johnson had been. After all much of what I was told came from somewhat narrow perspectives, anecdotes, hearsay and outright myth. Mrs. Anderson’s story brings a much needed dose of humanity to the ongoing narrative of Robert Johnson’s life. The book seems to hover around the periphery but it fills in so many of the details and intangibles of who he was as a person and the people he cared for. It was sad and disheartening to read about the opportunists that scammed the family and deprived them of any royalties. Also seems
very timely considering the recent resurgence of state sponsored racism.