Blues brother: Amherst woman pens family memoir about fabled musician Robert Johnson
Annye Anderson’s memoir about her stepbrother, the famous bluesman Robert Johnson, features a previously unseen photograph of the guitarist — one of just three photos known to exist of him.
Annye Anderson outside her old family home in 2018 in Memphis, Tennessee, where she once lived with Robert Johnson. Photo by and courtesy of Preston Lauterbach
Historian and co-writer Preston Lauterbach with Annye Anderson by a mural in Memphis that celebrates her beloved stepbrother, bluesman Robert Johnson. Photo courtesy of Preston Lauterbach
Robert Johnson’s music was revived for a larger audience in the 1960s by British rockers such as Eric Clapton, then was snatched up by white publishers, leaving Johnson’s family with nothing.