and Ann Charters' movie "The Blues," finished in 1962, and finding wide release, after being lost for many years, in a 2020 package entitled "Searching for Secret Heroes," by Document Records, thanks to producer Gary Atkinson. In July 1968, Bob West recorded Furry Lewis along with Bukka White in Lewis's Memphis apartment. In 1972 West, with Bob Graf, in Seattle, released the recording on a 12-inch vinyl record. In 2001 the recording was released on CD as "Furry Lewis, Bukka White & Friends, Party! at Home", by Arcola Records. In 1969, the record producer Terry Manning recorded Lewis in his Fourth Street apartment in Memphis, near Beale Street. These recordings were released in Europe at the time by Barclay Records and again in the early 1990s by Lucky Seven Records in the United States and in 2006 by Universal Records. In 1972 he was the featured performer in the Memphis Blues Caravan, which included Bukka White, Sleepy John Estes, Clarence Nelson, Hammie Nixon, Memphis Piano Red, Sam Chatmon, and Mose Vinson. He opened twice for the Rolling Stones, performed on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, had a part in a Burt Reynolds movie (W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings, 1975), and was profiled in Playboy magazine. Joni Mitchell's song "Furry Sings the Blues" (on her album Hejira), is about her visit to Lewis's apartment and a mostly ruined Beale Street on February 5, 1976. Lewis despised the Mitchell song and felt she should pay him royalties for being its subject. Lewis began to lose his eyesight because of cataracts in his final years. He 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. He is buried in the Hollywood Cemetery, in South Memphis, where his grave bears two headstones. The second, larger headstone, was purchased by fans. Discography Furry Lewis, 1959 Back on My Feet Again, 1961 Done Changed My Mind, 1962 Fourth & Beale, 1969 Live at the Gaslight at the Au Go Go, 1971 The Alabama State Troupers Road Show, 1973 References External links Fansite reminiscences Mini-biography @ cr.nps.gov Furry Lewis on Myspace Mississippi Blues Trail Illustrated Furry Lewis discography 1890s births 1981 deaths African-American guitarists American blues guitarists American male guitarists Memphis blues musicians American blues singer-songwriters Blues revival musicians Country blues singers American street performers Fat Possum Records artists Songster