Lew Childre
Lew Childre - US country musician
Person from United States
Genres: country, USA, american
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About Lew Childre
Lew Childre (Opp, AL, November 1, 1901 - December 3, 1961) was an American country (steel)guitarist and singer. Lew Childre was one of the last of the Vaudeville/tent show entertainers in country music and a forgotten early pioneer of that music. Lew during the 30’s and 40’s was the hot old time country music act in the U S. Lew’s beginnings were typical of a lot of the musicians of that era starting off as a street musician/dancer in the small Alabama town of Opp where he would sing, buck dance and play music for change of passers by much to the chagrin of his father who was the County Judge. However, he did attend college at the University of Alabama and was a premed student which he would later use as a take off in his live shows as the famous Dr. Lew Comedy act where he would spoof medicine men selling his bogus “My wonderful liver and lights remedy”. Lew would work tent shows and with minstrel shows in the summers when he was out of school and upon graduation from the U of A the performing bug had bitten him too hard to continue his medical training and he formed a small jazz band. “Lew Childre & the Alabama Cotton Pickers” began performing in 1924 in which one of the members was a young unknown man named Lawrence Welk that lasted for few years until Lew decided to go into the old time and country music direction. Lew teamed up with Wiley Walker in the early thirties as the Alabama Boys before Wiley moved on and formed the famous Wiley & Gene duo. Lew recorded very little commercially but made numerous transcription recordings and played on some of the larger radio stations in the south and was nationwide for a brief time on the old Blue network. Lew was also one the original X station performers along with the Carter Family and Wayne Raney on XERA Del Rio, Texas in the thirties. Lew was a great spokesman and companies clamored for him to sell their products. His sponsors included Warren Paints, General Foods, Golden Flake Flower and Pepsi Cola. Lew joined the Grand Ol’ Opry in 1946 and a year later formed a partnership with the legendary Stringbean which the team remained together until Lew’s retirement in 1959. Lew and Stringbean made only a handful of commercial recordings for Starday and there seems to be no live performances of their work at the opry that has survived the years. Lew was also an avid sportsman and created several fishing lures, reels and poles some of which are still being produced today. His original equipment is highly sought after by fishing enthusiasts around the world. Oddly enough if you Google Lew’s name you will find more information about his fishing equipment than his 40 + year run as an entertainer. Lew past away in December of 1961.
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