13 Facts About Furry Lewis

Walter E "Furry" Lewis was an American country blues guitarist and songwriter from Memphis, Tennessee.

Furry Lewis 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.

Furry Lewis's family moved to Memphis when he was age 7.

Furry Lewis was invited to play several dates with W C Handy's Orchestra.

In 1916, Lewis lost a leg in an accident when trying to jump a freight train in the area around Du Quoin, Illinois, despite having enough cash to pay for a rail ticket.

Furry Lewis spent a month in hospital at Carbondale, 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.

Furry Lewis made his first recordings for Vocalion Records in Chicago in 1927.

Furry Lewis again recorded for Vocalion in Memphis in 1929.

Furry Lewis sometimes fingerpicked and sometimes played with a slide.

Furry Lewis 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 played I could really feel" Lewis hated the Mitchell song and said she should pay him royalties for being its subject.

Furry Lewis began to lose his eyesight because of cataracts in his final years.

Furry Lewis 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.

Furry Lewis is buried in the Hollywood Cemetery in South Memphis, where his grave bears two headstones.