The Lewis Family has long stood as a cornerstone of Georgia music and the bluegrass festival circuit, thanks to a signature style built around Little Roy Lewis’s fiery and frequently comic banjo antics, a prominent bass drum, and powerful harmonies supplied by a lineup of identically attired Lewis daughters. Known as the “First Family of Bluegrass Gospel,” the group traces its origins to 1925, when Roy Lewis, Sr.—nicknamed “Pop”—used a ladder to help 15-year-old Pauline Holloway, later called “Mom” Lewis, elope from her home in McCormick, SC; she passed away in 2002. In the late 1940s the couple enlisted four of their eight children to create a family vocal ensemble, adopting the name the Lewis Family for a gospel appearance at a Woodmen of the World gathering in 1951. That same year the group cut its first sides for the small Sullivan label, then moved to Starday in 1957. While the gospel-quartet sound of the Chuckwagon Gang and the driving gospel approach of Martha Carson left their mark, the Lewises’ own sonic identity and stage presentation stood apart from the outset. Beginning in 1954, they launched a weekly television program broadcast from Augusta, GA, close to their Lincolnton base; the show continued until 1992. Their concert format likewise proved remarkably stable, with roughly sixty albums issued on Starday, Canaan, Riverson, and Daywind preserving an essentially consistent sound. Full-time touring commenced in the early 1960s.
By the close of the twentieth century the family was performing around two hundred dates annually, appearing at Southern-gospel events such as the Albert E. Brumley Memorial Singing in Springdale, AR, and at bluegrass festivals across the country. Their programs blended cornball comedy and theatrical flair with an explicit gospel message, offering audiences a living glimpse of an earlier era of traveling family groups. Although the Lewises have remained largely outside the bluegrass mainstream, Little Roy Lewis is widely acknowledged as one of the genre’s premier five-string banjoists, unmatched in sheer fretboard velocity. Daughters Miggie, Polly, and Janis Lewis gradually joined the act during the 1960s and 1970s as several brothers left to pursue careers in business, their vocal harmonies forming the backbone of many performances; a third generation of Lewis musicians has appeared onstage with increasing frequency in more recent years. Numerous family members double on multiple instruments, and several up-tempo selections, among them “The Good Time Get Together,” are arranged to spotlight a succession of virtuoso solos that occasionally feature such unusual timbres as autoharp. The repertoire draws heavily on bluegrass songwriter Randall Hylton while also incorporating traditional numbers and distinctive originals from an array of little-known Georgia composers. The Lewises present their own yearly event, the Lewis Family Homecoming & Bluegrass Festival, in Lincolnton. They entered the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1992 and have received multiple Dove awards.
