Furry Lewis - WikiHQ

Categories

1981 deaths

20th-century African-American male singers

20th-century American male singers

20th-century American singers

African-American male singer-songwriters

American male singer-songwriters

Year of birth uncertain

20th-century American guitarists

American street performers

Universal Records artists

Blues revival musicians

American male guitarists

Singer-songwriters from Mississippi

Victor Records artists

African-American guitarists

American blues guitarists

Country blues singers

Songster musicians

American blues singer-songwriters

Folkways Records artists

Guitarists from Tennessee

Southland Records artists

Vocalion Records artists

Guitarists from Mississippi

Singer-songwriters from Tennessee

Barclay Records artists

1890s births

People from Greenwood, Mississippi

Memphis blues musicians

Musicians from Memphis, Tennessee

Fat Possum Records artists

Walter E. "Furry" Lewis (March 6, 1893 or 1899 – September 14, 1981) was an American country blues guitarist and songwriter from Memphis, 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 the folk blues revival of the 1960s.

Life and career

Lewis was born in Greenwood, Mississippi. His birth year is uncertain. Many sources give 1893, the date he gave in his later years, but researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc suggest 1899, based on his 1900 census entry, and other sources suggest 1895 or 1898.

In his travels as a musician, he was exposed to a wide variety of performers, including Bessie Smith, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Alger "Texas" Alexander. In 1916,