Brother Robert

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"

"Anderson offers vivid, personal glimpses of her stepbrother ... providing a colorful picture .... [An] earnest and enlightening memoir."

"An illuminating portrait of an artist lost in the mists of history and mystery."

"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."

"Cutting through the mythos that has long surrounded this iconic artist, this is an intriguing addition to the history of 20th-century blues."

"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."

"Anderson's a charming storyteller, and her stories provide a fresh perspective."

"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."

"[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."

"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."

"A remarkable book, one which so richly complements those that came before it documenting Robert Johnson's life and legacy."

"Rich... there is an intimacy that fires the story to life.”

“[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)

"Intimate and warm."

"[This book] paints a lively portrait of the African American community in Memphis in the 1930s.”

"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."