Most people don’t realize this, but Memphis (not Chicago) is regarded as the birthplace of the Blues. There on Beale Street, near the Mississippi River bluff, the blues became refined and acceptable. Later, the Blues migrated north to Chicago and south to New Orleans. While I lived in Memphis, I became personally acquainted with a real honest to God Bluesman.

When I was in college (‘73 - ‘77), I used to hang out in Memphis with country-blues guitarist bluesman Walter E. "Furry" Lewis. I used to go to his shows and occasionally play washboard with him. (He even called me "Washboard" because he could never remember my name.) Besides being a "natural bluesman" and a musical genious in his own right, one of Furry’s claims to fame was that he had played with fellow Memphian W.C. Handy, who is widely considered as the "Father of the Blues".

Furry was famous for his ability to sing and play acoustic guitar with a bottleneck slide. Joni Mitchell came and interviewed him, then wrote a song later about him called, "Furry Sings the Blues". She recorded that in 1977 or 1978, and it made Furry mad because he felt that he should have been entitled to some kind of payment or royalties for that song. In 1976, when the Rolling Stones toured in Memphis, they had Furry do the opening set before a crowd of 53,000 people.

Overseas, Furry was an even bigger legend than in the States. One in Sweden, he played before a crowd of 70,000 people. They had an advance hype build up for him and everyone was wearing buttons that said, "Furry’s Coming". He gave me one of the extras that he had.

When the Rolling Stones came to Memphis in 1975, they asked Furry to be the opening act and he performed for them and a sell-out crowd at Memphis' Memorial Stadium.

If you ever heard the Lynyrd Skynyrd song, "The Ballad Of Curtis Loew", the person they describe in that song was very much what Furry was like. I used to visit Furry in his modest duplex at 811 Mosby Street in Memphis (in the ghetto). I would bring him a fifth of Jack Daniels Black Label, and he’d play for three hours or so from his bed. Furry was always in bed when you’d go visit him at home.

Furry died in 1981, after a fire in his duplex and the sudden displacement that followed. It caused him to catch pneumonia. He was about 88 when he died.

Below are a few lines from Furry’s songs:

I got it written in the back of my shirt, I’m a natural-born East-Man I don’t have to work.

If you follow me baby, I will turn your money green I’ll show you more money, than Rockefeller ever seen.