Lewi Longmire

Singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist (a short list of the instruments he plays would include guitar, piano, organ, mandolin, banjo, lap and pedal steel, accordion, drums, trumpet, and harmonica), Lewi Longmire is a session player's session player, but with his roots rocking Lewi Longmire Band, which sounds like nothing so much as a cross between the Band and the Sir Douglas Quintet with Joe Cocker sitting in on vocals, he's also a dynamic bandleader and frontman. Born in rural New Mexico into a family of musicians, Longmire began playing guitar as a teenager and just kept adding instruments to his kit bag from there. He moved to Albuquerque, NM, to attend the University of New Mexico, but after forming the hippie punk jam band Apricot Jam, he dropped out of school to devote himself to music. The band relocated to Portland, OR, in 1997, and promptly broke up. Longmire opted to remain in Portland and was soon playing with seemingly anybody and everybody in the area and became a regular call guy at the local studios. His instrumental versatility was a definite asset, and eventually he became part of the touring bands of such artists as Michael Hurley, Victoria Williams, and others. He also performed regularly as part of an acoustic duo with Annalisa Turnfelt. Eventually he formed the Lewi Longmire Band with bassist Bill Rudolph and drummer Ned Folkerth and stepped to the forefront with his fiery blend of roots rock and old country blues. The band released If I Live to Be 100 in 2004, followed by Crazy Coyote in 2007 and Fire 'Neath the Still in 2008.