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Article published Jul 13, 2007 First CD a 'Long Time' coming for singer-songwriter
By Steve Wildsmith of The Daily Times Staff
There’s something to that old adage about hard work paying off. Just ask singer-songwriter Sam Lewis.
Lewis, who celebrates the release of his new album “One’s a Long Time, Two’s a Fly By” on Saturday night at Patrick Sullivan’s Saloon in Knoxville’s Old City, had a lot of help in making the album. Sure, the songs are his. But it was a team effort from his fellow East Tennessee artists and musicians that helped the North Carolina boy’s goal of making his first CD come true.
“Medford’s Black Record Collection, Trisha Gene Brady, Amanda Baird — I’ve been really blessed with a lot of good people who come to my shows religiously and want to helmp me out,” Lewis told The Daily Times this week. “They’re all team players, and they care for everybody else as much as they care for themselves. It’s like the guys in Medford’s — they put on that Americana Jug Train, where they invite a bunch of artists to share the bill.
“By doing that, we get all of our fans together and get them to connect with each other, and it turns into a party. It’s a huge success, and that’s the kind of thing that shows me that these people do care. That’s what I want my CD release party to be — a celebration. That’s why we’re having it early, so people can drop by if they don’t want to stay out late, and it’s a free event. It’s a way for the fans and everybody who’s helped me out to get together and hang out.”
Lewis is a relative newcomer to the East Tennessee music scene, having moved to Knoxville in October 2005 from the small town of Asheboro, N.C. He’d started out from high school working in the local mill, but the call of a new town and a new life were too hard to resist. He’d had a guitar since he was 12, but when he started playing it again after several years, it changed him in some way.
After moving to Knoxville, he put himself to work learning the songs of Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson. Although he’d dabbled in songwriting, it took a while for him to take it seriously, but in Knoxville he found a willing audience and plenty of like-minded musicians with whom he could collaborate.
At first, he got started locally playing free shows at coffeehouses like The Lost Savant, on Broadway in Knoxville. From there, he springboarded into various open-mic nights (including one stint at Brackins Blues Bar in downtown Maryville, where he sat in with Tuesday night regular Scott McMahan). He got serious about guitar-playing and taught himself to play harmonica as well, and last summer, he took a step back and realized that playing music was where his heart was at.
“I’m a gig whore — I’ll play wherever you’ll let me play, and then I’ll do it some more,” he said. “It’s the experience that makes you better, and that’s half of being a musician. By playing more, the better you get at it. I’m just trying to get my name everywhere. That’s one of my goals — if people haven’t seen me, I would like them to at least have heard of me. That, making a CD and getting a band started — those were my goals for this year.”
The band he’s put together — the Whipperwills — take Lewis’s songs and flesh them out. They can range from simple two-guitar duets to full-on country rock, and it’s a way for Lewis to get his foot in the door at venues that don’t normally book solo acoustic acts.
“With the band, we’re trying to rock a little bit, and I’ve found some really great players,” he said. “We’ve recreated the music, and I think it’s just as good as what I do solo, if not better. Now, it’s hard to play out by myself, because we’ve turned some of them into really fun songs for the whole band.”
In January, he started work on the CD, working in the home studio used by Medford’s member Michael Davis. It’s a stripped-down, mostly acoustic affair that’s an accurate reflection of how he sounds live. His music is straightforward singer-songwriter folk — a guitar, Lewis’s world-weary tenor and a batch of songs that show off his influences but are original in their own right. He’s still honing his chops and finding his niche, and slowly but surely, he’s winning over those who turn out to see him.
“It’s very stripped-down, and when I heard the production, I can hear the foot-tapping on there,” he said. “I can hear the squeak of the guitar straps. It gives a lot of character to it, and that’s what I wanted. When they asked me what I wanted it to sound like, I said I wanted it to sound like, when you put it in the CD player, that you’re at a show.”
The recording studio was one place where Lewis’s inexperience made for a more honest approach to the music. He tackled it in the same way he does a live show, he said — winning over the listeners with one shot. Twelve of the 15 tracks were done in a single take, and the warmth that crackles through the speakers is as genuine and earnest as the man himself.
“I’m my own biggest critic, so when I listen to it, I hear a novice,” he said. “If you want to break it down, a professional musician is someone who plays for a living, and I’m halfway there. That’s really what I want out of it — to keep writing, because that’s the biggest drive for me. Playing comes second, but I do enjoy playing for people, and personally, I feel like it’s getting better. I just want to do all of those things for a living and be able to pay my bills.”