Brian Robertson is the friend that I’ve had longest in my life. We lived together in a God-Damned Hippie Commune in Houston during the Seventies. We both were part of the collective that ran the Inlet Drug Crisis Center, and the GDHC was comprised of staff there. He played folk music at places like Sand Mountain in his spare time. (Have I mentioned that I generally despise folk music?) Soon enough, he got the Blues. Lotsa memories there, many of them blurred by time and psychoactive molecules.

It would take too long to go through all of our history, but Brian for many years made his living as a bluesman in Austin, both solo and in bands, and he more than once generously dragged me up on stage with him. He would even let me play solo breaks, though he is a far superior guitar player. And harmonica player. And keyboardist. I never sang at those gigs, of course, because, as good a friend as Brian is, he’s not actually insane.

Here is some tasty slide work of his on SoundClick. You may want to especially try out ‘Big Ass Buick’ for the slide and some understated harp.

He’s also the author of, among other books, the ‘Little Blues Book’, which is an excellent primer on the subject, with great illustrations by R. Crumb, who is perhaps the most famous underground artist from the Sixties.

Brian’s always been a serious nethead, and recently, he’s been fooling around with a web site where he does his thing with PhotoShop. His thing can be pretty damn twisted. You should be forewarned that much of it is politically-oriented, and that Brian’s opinions can be far less gentle than those usually expressed by the kindly souls here at EOB. Click the pic for more of VisualBlip:

I’m sometimes not a normal friend. I go through lengthy periods of hermitosis, when I don’t make much effort to keep up with the people that I love. It’s not about them, it’s about me, and it seems to be a familial trait. It’s cost me quite a few relationships over the decades, because, when I come out of the hermit phase, I’m embarrassed to get back in touch with people. Which means it’s even longer, and harder, as time goes on, to reconnect with them.

Brian’s done a good job of ignoring that flaw in my character. He called me this week, out of the never-never, after us not seeing each other for far too long. We chatted for hours. I’m looking forward to hanging out again with him and his lovely wife Melanie, later this month. He’s one of my few adoptive brothers, and I missed him.

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Pic Credit to Brian Robertson — All rights reserved.