Born March 6,
1899, in Greenwood, Mississippi, Lewis acquired the
nickname "Furry" from childhood playmates. At the age
of seven he and his family moved to Memphis, where
young Lewis took up the guitar under the tutelage of a
man whose name he recalled as "Blind Joe." Blind Joe
apparently was versed in nineteenth century song and
taught his protégé "Casey Jones" and "John Henry,"
songs based around the exploits of heroic figures.
Lewis would later record these two songs for the
Victor and Vocalion labels respectively. By 1908, he
was playing solo for parties, in taverns, and on the
street. He also was invited to play several dates with
W.C. Handy's Orchestra.
Lewis hoboed around the
country until 1917, when he lost a leg in a railroad
accident. He returned to Memphis, playing in
association with Jim Jackson, Gus Cannon (who would
form Cannon's Jug Stompers for recording dates), and
Will Shade. Though primarily a solo performer, Lewis
worked with this combination in a variety of clubs
on Beale Street including the famous Pee Wee's (now
the site of a Hard Rock Café) into the 1920s. The
loss of a leg did not prevent him from touring
during the early 1920s with the Dr. Willie Lewis
Medicine Show, where he made the acquaintance of a
young Memphis Minnie. His travels exposed him to a
wide variety of performers including Bessie Smith,
Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Texas Alexander. Like his
contemporary 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 records in Chicago for the Vocalion label. A
year later he recorded for the Victor label at the
Memphis Auditorium in a session that saw sides waxed
by the Memphis Jug Band, Jim Jackson, Frank Stokes,
and others. He again recorded for Vocalion in
Memphis in 1929. The recordings from these dates
exhibit a nimble, clean, and versatile picking style
that provides an excellent counterpoint to his
complex verses. Several of his recordings (notably
"Judge Harsh Blues" and "Cannonball Blues") display
Lewis's bottleneck slide playing, a style in which
he was proficient but not a master. His vocal range
was limited but he compensated by composing humorous
verses that were by turns bawdy, sly, boasting, and
pleading.
The onset of the Great
Depression in 1929 brought Lewis's recording career
to a halt. He continued to play Beale Street and
became a frequent performer in W.C. Handy Park
during the 1930s and 1940s. During the "Blues
Revival" of the 1960s, Lewis was rediscovered by a
younger generation of fans that appreciated his
expressive lyrics, dexterous playing, and
charismatic charm. He parlayed his delayed celebrity
into a movie cameo (initially offered to Sleepy John
Estes), a talk show appearance, and large hall shows
with the rock and roll bands that were his musical
progeny.
Furry Lewis died in
Memphis September 14, 1981.
By
Sean
Styles
