Furry Lewis - Saint-Louis Blues

[ELVIS4221]

A MASTER SLIDE, VOCAL AND GUITAR ARTIST OF THE HIGHEST LEVEL. IF THATS WASNT ENOUGH, HIS SHOWMANSHIP ARTISTRY MATCHED THAT OF BUKKA'S. FOR EXAMPLE, "WHEN I LAY MY BURDEN DOWN", UPLOADED BY VIEB. I MEAN HE TURNS THAT GUITAR EVERY WAY BUT LOOSE. MY, OH MY, HE EVEN PLAYS IT WITH HIS ELBOW. WHAT A GREAT HEART OF SWEETNESS AND STRENTGH.

[geolair]

Furry toured with the Alabama State Troopers in the 1970's - great group of musicians!

[MrBruceBarham]

gotta give hats off to Lee baker too when ya think of furry and cooper and madison and peanuts and the stadium when furry opened for the stones and crawdad and the pawn shop where furry keep his guitar

[BigDukeSixx67]

This is incredible!!!

Thanks for posting man!!

[lazarusdoghouse]

I emember him Playing at Peanuts bar. every weekend.

[KellyKrewDaddy]

@lazarusdoghouse My parents owned Peanuts.

[KellyKrewDaddy]

@lazarusdoghouse My parents owned Peanuts.

[turnermedman1231]

wow! i just found this clip and went right to my guitar and started playing in that way. it is such an easy way to play. i found it easier to use my middle finger instead of an small bit of pipe

[slideharp1]

A great piece of live FL...bought an album (vinyl) when in Helena, Ark. One side Furry and the other was Fred McD....one of my favorites ever. Gouged all to hell by crazy girlfriend with knife.....true!

[HumanZoo22]

tracking... excuse me.. tracking over here

[LewisK229]

my name is LEWIS KEARSEY im 100% serious...weird ain't it

[montezuma44]

I think this is million times cooler than any nowadays commercial hip hop and all that craps!

[caferive]

I visited Helena a while ago and visited FL's bar/speakeasy, met his wife/partner and had a beer with her, she was sweet, we had the craic and a laugh and there was a guy coughing and not very well in the back room, Furry died very soon after....hard not be sad but what a musical legacy he left...god bless him, wish I could of played with him though...!!!!

[deltabluuz]

feels like a night at Peanuts Pub

[schelpgameboy]

Furry used to babysit me when he lived down on fourth st right off of Beale St. My dad played on an album with him in the early 70's, called Furry live @ the gaslight-a-go-go. He played bottleneck like no other!!

[Ashwin42]

heard this fella on allmemphismusic tonight. God I love that station. Bringing me back to all these guys i never heard

[randalbyrd]

We used to party with Furry in Memphis back in the early 70's. He'd get a little drunk, and play out of tune, and we all had a good time.

[RabiesAngentleman]

That is too cool

[almanacofsleep]

Was that W.C Handy at the end?

[MrBuk86]

@almanacofsleep yup

[silasbuc]

His Casey Jones was infectious - listened to it as a regular diet off Harry Smith collection, signed on as a devotee!

[DirkJefferson]

Saw Furry play in '74 at Cornell. It was a big folk fest - lot's of biggies - Arlo, Vassar, Loudon, etc.

Furry zinged some old slide song, singing up a storm incomprehensibly, to a beat that only he knew.

He was going to beat the band. Then suddenly in mid-song, he put his elbow on his knee, held his chin in his hand, and smiled. Caught everybody by surprise with his ending.

It was his way of jiving us.

[astromanred]

Try jumping up and down, an clapping your hands out of time.  To the displeasure of your neighbors, and the pleasure of your soul. Al...Right!

[cjcccooper]

the stones should have opened for him instead....

[lostintheblues]

+ 1

[floydian18]

and so are you probably!

[gogogabo]

furry is drunk as hell

[peglegsam]

great video, thanks for sharin' :)

[modernoracle]

Very cool! Nice slide work. Got the soul!!

[ThomasDeLello]

The hippies found him working for the Memphis Sanitation Department... as a garbage collector, I guess and brought him to N.Y. where he made a lot of unexpected money... He recorded songs back in 1927...!

[vleb]

Please, tell us more about that story !

[Mikkev]

A year later... Read the book Road Stories and Recipes by Don Nix. Very entertaining and it has some really good and touching stuff on Furry.

[Laurencini]

Yes, a great book... i like the story about cutting a bottleneck

[busessuck1]

@vleb same deal as son house, skip james, missipi fred mcdowell and rev gary davis

[Blueswailer]

Nice vid. That Furry Lewis sure was a character in his own right too.

[Azrael888]

Cool video!