Search - Dave Lewis :: The Godfather of Northwest Rock

Early 60's Seattle rock/blues

Opinionated Mike | Washington State | 03/17/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Dave Lewis is the king of the Hammond B-3 rock artists. I used to travel from Tacoma to Seattle in the early 60's every Saturday night to watch him perform. In fact it was a drop in visit by Herb Alpert who heard Dave's group and immediately signed him to A@M records when in 1962 he made his first big album "Little Green Thing", one of the early A@M productions. He wrote and played 90% of his own stuff, and his songs were also played by several early Northwest groups like the Sonics, The Kingsmen and The Counts. "The Dave Lewis Sound" influenced many Northwest rock groups.

Dave had several top 10 hits in Washington including David's Mood, Lip Service, Little Green Thing and a fabulous version of Bill Dogget's Honky Tonk.

With 24 songs, some are live and of poor sound quality. The best are the studio cuts. This album needs remastering to be great. As it is, it's close to great.

Remember, like many of the early rock stuff, it's all instrumental..maybe that's coming back, like Explosions in The Sky.

My favorite is David's Other Mood, a follow-on to the original. Others are Lip Service, Last Train, Little Joe, The Swim Thing, Mister Clyde, and

Philly Dog.

Lewis knows the Hammond Organ. His riffs are fabulous. He uses all of the tools, with lots of vibrato."