Furry Lewis | |
|---|---|
 Lewisc. 1927 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Walter E. Lewis |
| Born | (1893-03-06)March 6, 1893 or 1899 Greenwood, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Died | (1981-09-14)September 14, 1981 (aged 82 or 88) Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Occupation | Musician |
| Instruments |
|
| Years active | Late 1920s–1970s |
| Labels | |
Walter E. "Furry" Lewis (March 6, 1893[1] or 1899[2] – September 14, 1981) was an Americancountry blues guitarist and songwriter fromMemphis, Tennessee. He was one of the earliest of the blues musicians active in the 1920s to be brought out of retirement and given new opportunities to record during thefolk blues revival of the 1960s.
Lewis was born inGreenwood, Mississippi. His birth year is uncertain. Many sources give 1893, the date he gave in his later years, but the researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc suggest 1899, based on his1900 census entry, and other sources suggest 1895 or 1898.[2] His family moved to Memphis when he was age 7.[1] He acquired the nickname Furry from childhood playmates. By 1908, he was playing solo at parties, in taverns, and on the street. He was also invited to play several dates withW. C. Handy's Orchestra.
In his travels as a musician, he was exposed to a wide variety of performers, includingBessie Smith,Blind Lemon Jefferson, andAlger "Texas" Alexander. In 1916,[a] Lewis lost a leg in an accident when trying to jump a freight train in the area aroundDu Quoin, Illinois, despite having enough cash to pay for a rail ticket.[3] He spent a month in hospital atCarbondale, Illinois recovering, although it took him a year to adjust to his artificial leg and in the meantime he gave up his traveling lifestyle and returned to Memphis, where he performed on street corners.[3] In 1922 he took a permanent position as astreet sweeper for the city of Memphis, a job he held until his retirement in 1966, which allowed him to continue performing music in Memphis.
Lewis made his firstrecordings forVocalion Records in Chicago in 1927.[4] A year later, he recorded forVictor Records at the Memphis Auditorium in a session with theMemphis Jug Band,Jim Jackson,Frank Stokes, and others. He again recorded for Vocalion in Memphis in 1929. The tracks were mostly blues but included two-part versions of "Casey Jones" and "John Henry". He sometimesfingerpicked and sometimes played with aslide.[5] He made many successful records in the late 1920s, including "Kassie Jones", "Billy Lyons & Stack-O-Lee" and "Judge Harsh Blues" (later called "Good Morning Judge").
On October 3, 1959,Sam Charters, with the assistance of his wifeAnn Charters, recorded Furry in his rented room in Memphis, Tennessee. The recordings were released on aFolkways Records LP that same year. On April 3, 1961, Charters again recorded two albums of Furry Lewis - this time at theSun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, for thePrestige / Bluesville imprint: "Back on my Feet Again" (BV 1036), and "Done Changed my Mind" (BV 1037). One track was included in Sam and Ann Charters' movieThe Blues, finished in 1962, and finding wide release, after being lost for many years, in a 2020 package titledSearching for Secret Heroes byDocument Records, thanks to producer Gary Atkinson.
In July 1968,Bob West recorded Furry Lewis along withBukka White in Lewis's Memphis apartment. In 1972, West, with Bob Graf, in Seattle, released the recording on a 12-inch vinyl record.[6] In 2001 the recording was released on CD as "Furry Lewis, Bukka White & Friends, Party! at Home", by Arcola Records.[7]
In 1969, the record producerTerry Manning recorded Lewis in his Fourth Street apartment in Memphis, nearBeale Street. These recordings were released in Europe at the time byBarclay Records and again in the early 1990s by Lucky Seven Records in the United States and in 2006 byUniversal Records.
In 1972, he was the featured performer in the Memphis Blues Caravan, which includedBukka White,Sleepy John Estes, Clarence Nelson,Hammie Nixon, Memphis Piano Red,Sam Chatmon, andMose Vinson.[citation needed]
He opened twice for theRolling Stones, performed onThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, had a part in aBurt Reynolds movie (W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings, 1975), and was profiled inPlayboy magazine.[1][5]
Joni Mitchell's song "Furry Sings the Blues" (on her albumHejira) is about her visit to Lewis's apartment and a mostly ruinedBeale Street on February 5, 1976. She wrote "You bring him smoke and drink and he'll play for you, It's mostly muttering now and sideshow spiel, But there was one song he playedI could really feel"[8] Lewis hated the Mitchell song and said she should pay himroyalties for being its subject.[3]
Lewis began to lose his eyesight because of cataracts in his final years. He contracted pneumonia in 1981, which led to his death from heart failure in Memphis on September 14 of that year at the age of 88.[9] He is buried in the Hollywood Cemetery in South Memphis, where his grave bears two headstones. The second, larger headstone, was purchased by fans.[3]
