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Biography
Infobox musical artist | name = Furry Lewis| image = Furry-Lewis.jpg| caption = Lewis c. 1927| image_size =| background = solo_singer| birth_name = Walter E. Lewis| alias =| birth_date = birth date|1893|3|6|mf=y| death_date = dda|mf=y|1981|9|14|1893|3|6| death_place = Memphis, Tennessee , United States| origin = Greenwood, Mississippi|Greenwood , Mississippi , United States | instrument = Singing|Vocals , guitar | genre = Delta blues , country blues | occupation = Singer , guitarist , songwriter | years_active = Late 1920s - 1970s| label = Vocalion Records|Vocalion , Victor Records|Victor , Barclay Records|Barclay , Lucky Seven, Universal Records|Universal Furry Lewis (March 6, 1893 - September 14, 1981)Allmusic|class=artist|id=p421/biography|pure_url=yes Allmusic biography - accessed January 2008 was an United States|American country blues guitarist and songwriter from Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis , Tennessee . Lewis was one of the first of the old-time blues musicians of the 1920s to be brought out of retirement, and given a new lease of recording life, by the folk blues revival of the 1960s.
Life and career
Walter E. Lewis was born in Greenwood, Mississippi|Greenwood , Mississippi , United States , but his family moved to Memphis when he was aged seven. Lewis acquired the nickname "Furry" from childhood playmates. http://www.nps.gov/history/delta/blues/people/furry_lewis.htm Trail of the Hellhound: Delta Blues in the Lower Mississippi - Lewis biography - accessed January 2008 By 1908, he was playing solo (music)|solo for parties, in taverns, and on the street. He was also invited to play several dates with W. C. Handy 's Orchestra .
His travels exposed him to a wide variety of performers including Bessie Smith , Blind Lemon Jefferson , and Alger "Texas" Alexander . Like his contemporary Frank Stokes (musician)|Frank Stokes , he tired of the road and took a permanent job in 1922. His position as a street sweeper for the City of Memphis, a job he would hold until his retirement in 1966, allowed him to remain active in the Memphis music scene.
In 1927, Lewis cut his first gramophone record|records in Chicago for the Vocalion Records|Vocalion record label|label . A year later he recorded for the Victor Records|Victor label at the Memphis Auditorium in a session with the Memphis Jug Band , Jim Jackson (musician)|Jim Jackson , Frank Stokes (musician)|Frank Stokes , and others. He again recorded for Vocalion in Memphis in 1929. The tracks were mostly blues but included two-part versions of " The Ballad of Casey Jones|Casey Jones " and "John Henry". He sometimes fingerpick ed, sometimes played with a slide (guitar technique)|slide .cite book | first= Tony | last= Russell | year= 1997 | title= The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray | edition= | publisher= Carlton Books Limited | location= Dubai | pages= 134–35 | isbn= -X He recorded many successful records in the late 1920s including "Kassie Jones", " Stagger Lee (song)|Billy Lyons & Stack-O-Lee " and "Judge Harsh Blues" (later called "Good Morning Judge").
In 1969, Lewis was recorded by the record producer , Terry Manning , at home in Lewis' Beale Street apartment. These sound recording and reproduction|recordings were released in Europe at the time by Barclay Records , and then again in the early 1990s by Lucky Seven Records in the United States , and again in 2006 by Universal Records|Universal . Joni Mitchell 's song, "Furry Sings the Blues", (on her Hejira (album)|Hejira album ) is about Lewis and the Memphis music she experienced in the early 1970s. Lewis despised the Mitchell song and demanded she pay him royalties . http://www.cascadeblues.org/History/FurryLewis.htm Cascadeblues.org biography
In 1972 he was the featured performer in the Memphis Blues Caravan, which included Bukka White , Sleepy John Estes , Clarence Nelson, Hammy Nixon, Memphis Piano Red, Sam Chatmon , and Mose Vinson .Citation needed|date=March 2010 Before he died, Lewis opened twice for The Rolling Stones , played on Johnny Carson 's The Tonight Show , and had a part in a Burt Reynolds film|movie , W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975), and had a profile in Playboy (magazine)|Playboy magazine .
Lewis began to lose his eyesight because of cataract s 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. http://thedeadrockstarsclub.com/1980.html Thedeadrockstarsclub.com - accessed November 2009 He is buried in the Hollywood Cemetery in South Memphis, where his grave bears two headstones, the second purchased by fans.
See also
List of blues musicians
List of Blues revival musicians
List of Country blues musicians
Piedmont blues
List of Sire Records artists
Anthology of American Folk Music
References
Reflist
External links
http://www.wirz.de/music/lewis.htm Illustrated Furry Lewis discography
http://myspace.com/walter_furry_lewis Furry Lewis on Myspace
Persondata | NAME = Lewis, Walter E. | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Lewis, Furry | SHORT DESCRIPTION = United States|American country blues guitarist and songwriter | DATE OF BIRTH = March 6, 1893 | PLACE OF BIRTH = Greenwood, Mississippi , United States | DATE OF DEATH = September 14, 1981 | PLACE OF DEATH = Memphis, Tennessee , United States DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Furry Category:1893 births Category:1981 deaths Category:African American musicians Category:American blues guitarists Category:Memphis blues musicians Category:American blues singer-songwriters Category:Blues revival musicians Category:Country blues singers Category:American buskers Category:Fat Possum Records artists Category:Songster musicians Category:People from Greenwood, Mississippi Category:People from Memphis, Tennessee Category:Vocalion Records artists Category:Deaths from heart failure
ca:Furry Lewis de:Furry Lewis es:Furry Lewis it:Furry Lewis pt:Furry Lewis fi:Furry Lewis
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