Lew Williams

Dubbed "the Cab Calloway of rockabilly" by historian Bill Millar, Lew Williams is one of the unsung heroes of early rock & roll, celebrated for a jazzy, sinuous style unique among his contemporaries. Born January 12, 1934, in Chillicothe, TX, Williams began his amateur singing career at the age of four. In 1945 his family relocated to Dallas, and after graduating from high school he made his professional debut playing country music in local clubs. Around this same time Williams began developing his own original songs, and even though he entered Wichita Falls' Midwestern University in the fall of 1952, by year's end he headlined a twice-weekly radio program on Frederick, OK, station KTAT, additionally playing live dates on weekends. Whenever he returned to Dallas to visit his family, Williams spent his idle time working as a gofer at Jim Beck's recording studio, a nexus for aspiring country musicians and major-label acts alike. If time remained at the end of a session, Williams was often offered the opportunity to cut one of his songs, and as a result his earliest demos were recorded with some of country's most sought-after session players at his disposal. After signing to the Flair label, Williams officially entered Beck's studio in June 1953 to cut his debut single, "I've Been Doin' Some Slippin' Too." The record was not a hit, and the results of a follow-up session from October went unreleased. Williams nevertheless submitted a handful of his songs to Imperial Records founder Lew Chudd -- the track "Cat Talk" impressed Chudd enough to extend a publishing contract, although he withheld a record deal until Williams delivered additional material of the same caliber. During this time the singer regularly appeared on WFAA's Saturday Night Shindig, broadcast live each...