i like to try and experiment with the vocal parts for both lew and jimmy.  do
you think we could get a club for the other members individually?  if so please
e-mail me.

When I listen to the song "How Are Things In Clay
KY" (1980), I turn my stereo's "surround" knob to the
max, lean close to the right speaker, & hear Lew's
voice better than I would without the "surround"
feature. It helps me to re-enact his harmonies when I
practice with my own voice & guitar. My normal range is
baritone, but I do like to experiment now & again with
those high notes Lew often sang (& even Harold's low
notes).

I got to meet Lew at several of his solo shows.
He always signed autographs at the end of the show.
Getting to meet him & shake his hand was unbelievable for
me. I had written him a letter right after his
retirement from the Statlers & he wrote back & sent an
autographed pic. Things I will always treasure.<br>For anyone
that didn't get to see one of his solo shows, it was
incredible! His voice never failed him & he had such a good
time singing & telling jokes. He truly enjoyed
entertaing & was a class act all the way around. <br>I even
got to meet his mother, Rose, once. I wonder if she's
still around. She was very nice also.<br><br>Greg

It's nice to have a new member here. I agree that
we should spread the word; the question is
how.<br><br>One thing that endears me to Lew is that his life
paralleled my father's in a few ways. Both struggled most of
their lives with severe illnesses (Lew with Chron's, my
dad with multiple sclerosis). Both had to retire
early from their jobs due to those illnesses (my dad
was an engineer at a nuclear reactor site). Both
eventually died of causes related to those illnesses in
their early 50s (Lew in 1990, my dad in '99). Small
world, isn't it?

This is awesome!! A club dedicated to one of my
favorite singers!! Not a day goes by that I don't think
about Lew & miss him. I'm always singing or humming or
whistling one of his songs.<br>We must spread the word
around & hopefully get a lot more fans to
join.<br><br>Greg

Thanks, Shelley, for expressing your feelings;
mine happen to be similar. Some of my favorite
Statlers songs, including "I'm Dyin' A Little Each Day" &
"More Than A Name On A Wall" feature Jimmy. I'm sure
most Statler fans, especially die-hard ones like us,
know full well that Lew was there before Jimmy was. In
many groups such as the Supremes & CCR, lineup changes
& entire breakups often stemmed from backstabbing,
bickering & feuding that continue (& continue to spread to
fans) to this day. But the Statlers are the exception;
Lew left only because of illness & even took part in
the choice of Jimmy as his successor. Since the guys
practice peace among themselves, I'm sure they'd advocate
the same among their fans. Even the guestbook for
LewDeWitt.com pleads for refraining from comparing Lew & Jimmy
for purposes of degrading one or the other. Both that
website & this club are here to keep Lew's memory alive,
both as the Statlers' tenor & as a solo singer.

I'm guilty of not checking in here very often,
but just wanted to say that it is nice that there are
other Statler fans that haven't forgotten about Lew.
<br><br>And, so I don't get anymore nasty e-mail messages,
that doesn't mean that I don't like Jimmy. I
personally think both Jimmy and Lew are/were integral parts
of the Statlers; however, I am a Statler fan - not
JUST a Lew or Jimmy fan. All of the members have
played equal parts to the group.<br><br>Thanks for
letting me vent!<br>Shelley

Since Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Waylon
Jennings, Barbara Mandrell, Hank Williams Jr...have all
written a-b's, I hope the Statlers will write one
someday. Quotes from Lew could be compiled from various
old interviews, just like John Lennon's were for the
Beatles' story.

Songwriters have been battling to keep the
songwriting credit displayed for the music videos. Which
means now that they have been restored, Lew will get
credit everytime they play Eric Heatherly's version of
Flowers on the Wall.

Thanks, Melissa, for your wonderful addition to the pics.  I'm so glad you had
the chance to meet Lew during his brief solo career.

In light of the negativity that creeps up every
now & then in the Statler Brothers club, here are
some rules & guidelines to keep it from spreading
here:<br><br>1. I will not tolerate any questions or comments
that invade the privacy of Lew, his family, the other
Statlers, or their families or office staff.<br><br>2. If
anyone mentioned above (except Lew, who is deceased)
wishes to join, I advise them first to contact me
privately through Yahoo Messenger. If their private
conversation with me follows rule #1, I will believe their
claims to be true. I will post a notice here of their
arrival, then give them the signal to join. That way we
all will be assured of their credibility & learn
valuable info straight from the source.<br><br>Keeping
those in mind, have fun, & welcome to the club!

Surely there must be more than 9 fans of Lew out there who'd be willing to
interact at this place. How can we find them & notify them that it exists? Any
ideas?

That's right, had Lew lived to see today, he would have turned 63.  Though he is
deceased, happy birthday to him just the same.

Do any of you have pics to add to the photos section? Pics of Lew alone or with
the Statlers, I could always use more.

Next Monday would've been Lew's 63rd birthday, so
I'm considering holding a chat session at this club's
chatroom sometime this week. At 1st I thought of Monday,
but then I realized that my bowling league meets on
Monday evenings. But any other day of the week at 6:30
PM Mountain time would be fine for me. What
days/times would you all prefer?

it's good to here from someone once in a while.

It is very quiet indeed. Only 9 members here
including myself, so there doesn't seem to be much to say.
It's even quieter & smaller at clubs I've founded
about Charly McClain & Ricky Skaggs whose careers
peaked around the same time as
Lew's:<br><br><a href=http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/charlymcclain
target=new>http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/charlymcclain</a> Sentimental Ol'
Her<br><a href=http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/rickyskaggs
target=new>http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/rickyskaggs</a> A Country Boy At
Heart<br><br>Some of you here
might also be fans of those 2 singers, so this place
would be as good a place as any to get the word out.

where is everyone its almost like a ghost town here.

After taking a closer look at the site, I see
that it says little about Randolph Scott or Smiley
Burnett, but it does have detailed bio's of Tex Ritter,
the Durango Kid & others. It's nice that the Stats
got to meet R.S. shortly after their song hit the
charts.

The Statlers song "Whatever Happened To Randolph
Scott" aroused my curiosity as to who R.S. & the other
people mentioned were. An Internet search has led me to
the following site, which is rich with info about the
stars mentioned in the song AND many
more:<br><br><a href=http://www.surfnetinc.com/chuck/trio.htm
target=new>http://www.surfnetinc.com/chuck/trio.htm</a>

I updated my profile since it has been awhile since I've done so, check it out
sometime!<br><br>~Brian

i like the photos of the statlers that were posted they remind me of some of
there albums that they done with lew. simply because the are from the album
covers.

I know Cecil had a bunch of info on Lew. I have
not heard from him in several months, but he was the
one who gave me Lew's solo albums. I would advise
contacting him. His last known address was S10tahoe@...

Did any of you ever have the chance to meet Lew?
I never did. But from reading the guestbook at the
lewdewitt.com website, I can tell he was a nice guy, took time
to chat with & sign autographs for fans whenever he
could, & was fond of Country Time lemonade. If any of
you have stories about him to share, I'd like to see
them.

He sure did.  Then when his illness forced him to retire, he made such a good
choice for a successor, the group carries on to this day.  Thank you for joining
& posting, & welcome to the club.

lew dewitt help the group get started and he done a wonderful job.

When the guys recorded The Legend Goes On, Lew
must have realized that his illness would prove fatal
sooner or later, as indicated in one line from "Child Of
The 50s"--"When Elvis died, we all knew that we could
too." Also, in "Life's Railway To Heaven" they sing
about making "the trip successful from the cradle to
the grave." So Lew made the most of his remaining
days with the group. He even sang lead on another of
the album's songs, "That's When It Comes Home To You"
(undoubtedly he wrote it also).

To the few people who have joined thus far, thank
you. The club is off to a good start, with a few pics
in the photo section. If any of you have more pics
of Lew, with or without the Statlers, please add
them. To anyone who has either/both of his solo albums,
I'd like tapes of them, please.

Lew Gets his won club, this is great! He was my
favorite Statler Brother, I loved his voice and really
miss hearing him sing, although Jimmy is just
fantastic too, I still miss hearing Lew.<br><br>~Brian

Welcome to the Yahoo! Message Board for Lew DeWitt