Sam Andrew

Janis Joplin may have been the most famous member of Big Brother & the Holding Company, but she wasn't the only one in the group central to its sound -- guitar/singer Sam Andrew also wrote songs for the group, and he ended up with one of the longest careers of any of the members. Andrew's career in music began in 1959, at age 17, on the island of Okinawa. The son of a career military officer, he was living on the Japanese island with his family, and leading his own rock & roll band, which earned a regular gig at a locally broadcast American Bandstand-type program. His father's...