Lewis, a poor student, attended school only sporadically, and occasionally stole from the local merchants. The piano became an early focus in his life and he spent hours practicing on a neighbor's piano and those in the church until 1945 when his father borrowed against his belongings and bought an upright Starck piano for his ten-year-old son.
The youthful Lewis felt an affinity for the percussive sound of boogie-woogie blues, and his favorite songs in 1940s were the popular boogie hits "House of Blue Lights" and "Down the Road a Piece." He also sang Jimmie Rodgers and Al Jolson songs that he picked up from listening to his parent's records and, in 1948, firstheard Hank Williams on The Louisiana Hayride, a radio program patterned after the Grand Ole Opry and broadcast from Shreveport, Louisiana. Lewis idolized Williams and learned his songs from the local radio broadcasts. Thus, Rodgers, Jolson, and Williams, along with boogie-woogie, were the influences that shaped his own style. In 1949, a hillbilly band played at the opening of a Ford dealership in Ferriday. The Lewis' were present, and Elmo Lewis urged the owners of the dealership to permit his 14-year-old son to sit in on piano.
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