Furry Lewis
Shake 'Em On Down
Fantasy Records |
One
of my favorite music authors is Stanley Booth, and one of his
favorite musical subjects over the years was Furry Lewis. Lewis was one of those old blues guys
that I'd always heard about (he was even in a Burt Reynolds
movie), but I'd never actually heard his music until a few years
ago. Booth wrote a couple of great articles about him and really
captured Lewis' personality well. After reading them, you can’t
help but feel that you know Lewis almost as well as Booth did.
Lewis recorded a number of tracks in the late
'20s for the Vocalion and Victor labels, which were excellent.
He had a wry sense of humor and a great story-telling style,
meshing well with his slashing slide guitar accompaniment (he
sometimes, tongue-in-cheek, claimed to have invented bottleneck
guitar). Unfortunately, his recordings didn't sell particularly
well at the time, even though a couple of his tunes ("John
Henry" and "Kassie Jones") rank as some of the finest of the
era. He dropped out of music in the '30s, tired of the endless
travel and the waning fortunes of blues music during the
Depression era.
Lewis had been an employee of the City of Memphis since the '20s
and continued to work for the City into the '60s. Though he
didn't try to revive his musical career, he continued to play
around town for his friends and kin. He was rediscovered in the
late '50s by the blues scholar Sam Charters, who convinced him
to resurrect his career. He recorded two albums for Prestige/Bluesville
in 1961, Back On My Feet Again and Done Changed My
Mind. Some years later, the albums were collected by Fantasy
Records into a two-record set and, later, a single CD, called
Shake 'Em On Down.
Though I'd heard several Lewis sides over the
years on various collections, and online via YouTube, I never
picked up a collection that was strictly devoted to his music.
During the summer, while visiting a used record store, I
happened upon a gently used copy of Shake 'Em On Down and
eagerly snatched it up.
When listening to the '60s recordings of
"rediscovered" blues men, nearly all of them retain their
passion and enthusiasm for the music. However, often their
skills, either vocally or instrumentally, and sometimes maybe
both, had declined somewhat usually because of advanced age,
illness, or years of inactivity. These shortcomings were often
overlooked by fans at the time due to the sheer delight of
hearing their musical heroes perform their repertoire once
again.
Be advised that Furry Lewis suffered none of
those shortcomings. His voice and delivery was as strong as it
had been some 30 to 35 years earlier, and his fretwork was as
deft and nimble as if it were still the late '20s. He recreates
several songs that he originally recorded in the ’20s, “John
Henry” and “Casey Jones” among them, and the newer performances
are as strong, if not stronger, than the originals. It’s
remarkable that he doesn’t seem to have lost anything off of his
fastball in the ensuing years. Blues fans will recognize a lot
of these tunes --- the title track, W.C. Handy’s “St. Louis
Blues,” “Frankie and Johnny,” “Roberta,” “Goin’ To Kansas City,”
etc.
The best thing that can be said about these
tracks is that they capture a blues artist who finally seems to
be unleashing all the music that had been inside him for over 30
years. It has to be a maddening experience when you have a gift
and are unable to share it with everyone. With this pair of
albums (now collected as one), Furry Lewis was doing what he was
born to do, sharing his musical gift with music lovers
everywhere. He became one of the most adored of those
rediscovered blues men and he embraced his newfound fame,
proving to be a great storyteller and performer for a long time.
He recorded several more albums before his death in 1981 at age
88, but the two albums collected on Shake ‘Em On Down
represent his best recordings of those “rediscovery” years.
--- Graham Clarke