Meet… Son Lewis
Son Lewis has been playing blues guitar longer than most of you have been alive. Influenced by Robert Johnson [1911-1938], Otis Rush [1934-2018] and Elmore James [1918-1963], he was mentored by Danny Kalb [1942-1922], the original guitarist of 1960s blues-rock heroes The Blues Project. His band, at various times, has included members of Mink DeVille, Ricki Lee Jones, The Voodudes and Castle Browne. Whether solo or with his band, he always wanders over into soul, rock’n’roll and bare-bones honky-tonk. He’s currently on the Advisory Board of the Pocono Mountains Blues Society.
He’s opened for the legendary John Hammond, Jr., Mose Allison, Hubert Sumlin, Peter Tork of The Monkees, Tracy Nelson, Leon Redbone, Rick Danko of The Band, Rick Derringer, Gatemouth Brown, Elvin Bishop, Savoy Brown and Manhattan Transfer. He’s performed at the New Jersey Folk Festival, the Montclair Jazz & Blues Festival, Pete Seeger’s Hudson Clearwater Festival, the Morristown Folk Festival, the Hunger Project benefits, the Sussex County Fair and the Somerset Arts-Fest. He’s been heard on 70 radio stations in five states, has been seen on seven television stations, and graced the stages of hundreds of clubs including the Stanhope House, Crossroads, The Stone Pony, Folk City and The Bitter End.
He used to sneak into The Choo Choo Club in Garfield to see his favorite New Jersey band, The Young Rascals. He went to Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck to study music journalism “but I sucked at it,” he says.
His activism for the right causes had him singing at 1989’s POW/MIA “Bring Them Home” benefit concert series, which was recorded as a live album.
He’ll never truly retire. He’s made 27 records. And he’ll always be singing and playing guitar somewhere. As he recently told us, “when people ask why I am still doing this after all this time, I remind them that when you tell folks you drive a truck or you are an accountant, you are telling them what you do but when you tell them you are a musician, you are telling them WHO YOU ARE...."