Julian “Curly” Lewis
1924 – July 14, 2013
Curly Lewis was an influential fiddle player who, over a career that spanned 80 – yes, 80 years, played on some of the greatest western swing records ever made and helped popularize the genre. At the age of 11, Lewis won a fiddle contest that was sponsored by Bob Wills who probably would have hired him on the spot had he not been just a kid. By the time Lewis was 20, he had relocated to Tulsa, Oklahoma where he landed a job playing with Johnny Lee Wills with whom he’d stay for more than a decade. He later spent time playing with Wills and later still, in Leon McAulliffe’s Cimarron Boys and Hank Thompson. Lewis played what turned out to be his last gig in February of 2013 at his induction into the National Fiddlers Hall Of Fame in Tulsa. Curly Lewis was 88 when he passed away on July 14, 2013.