Furry Lewis

One of the greatest blues storytellers and slide guitarists of them all, Furry Lewis recorded several sides in the 1920s, and would probably have been relegated to history if not for George Mitchell, the musicologist who set about recording Memphis bluesmen in the early '60s. Mitchell's recordings brought Lewis the well-deserved attention of a new generation of fans obsessed with Delta blues. Folk archivist Harry Smith released some Lewis tracks on his famous Folkways anthologies, which also increased the artist's presence in the public eye. And though Lewis was not a rich man when he died in 1981, he enjoyed the status of local legend, played on national TV, and even opened for the Rolling Stones.