Think of the New Times Music Awards as the local Grammy Awards, but without future President Kanye West bloviating things like, “I am Warhol! I am the number one most impactful artist of our generation. I am Shakespeare in the flesh. Walt Disney, Nike, Google,” or, “When someone comes up and says something like, ‘I am a god,’ everybody says, ‘Who does he think he is?’ I just told you who I thought I was. A god. I just told you.”
Instead of Kanye, we have someone humbler but more talented: Special guest Kenny Lee Lewis, guitarist and bassist for the Steve Miller Band.
Do you believe in prescience? If he didn’t before, Lewis should. He joined the Steve Miller band in 1982 and shares songwriting credit on several songs from the album Abracadabra as well as subsequent albums. But as a 13-year-old aspiring musician, who clandestinely attended a Steve Miller concert in Memorial Auditorium in Sacramento, Lewis had his Cassandra moment.
“I got as close to the stage as I could, and at one moment, I thought I made eye contact with him,” recalled Lewis during a recent phone interview. “I pointed at him and told myself, ‘I’m going to work with you someday.’ I had been abandoned by my friends and had to walk 5 miles along the railroad tracks to get to the concert. I was in a weird state, the brunt of jokes; I didn’t have a girlfriend. I was just a fat kid from Sacramento who’d been playing ukulele since 7 years old, but after that concert, I went home and just started woodshedding.”
Music came naturally to Lewis, and his skills on guitar and bass quickly grew. Then he was introduced to jazz in college. His musical prowess soon landed him in L.A., where he was a sought after session player. At the same time, he was working with percussionist and keyboardist Gary Mallaber, and they were cooking up some demos.
“We were in the studio and Gary got a call from Steve Miller, who was looking for some songs for a new album,” Lewis explained. “He wondered if we should send them our demos, and I said, ‘Sure, send them all.’ Steve freaked out and loved the material so much that he used all eight of the songs.”
Lewis and Mallaber had recorded their demos on an eight-track, but Miller provided a 24-track and they transferred the songs over, and with Miller’s songs there was enough for an album.
“I’d forgotten all about that concert moment until right then, and when Steve said, ‘I dig your guitar and bass playing. Why don’t you come down to the studio and help me do this record.’ It all came flooding back.”
From there, Miller asked Lewis to “come out on tour,” but the decision wasn’t an easy one. Lewis was a double-scale session player, meaning he was getting paid double union wages for his studio work. Luckily his girlfriend at the time, now his wife, talked him into it. He’s been with the Steve Miller Band ever since, though he’s continued to work with a who’s who of music giants.
Brian Wilson, Steve Stills, Tower of Power, Branford Marsalis, Boz Scaggs, Ringo Starr, George Thorogood, Taj Mahal, B.B. King, Sheryl Crowe—the list goes on and on. And Lewis does his own side projects. He recently released New Vintage, an instrumental jazz album on the New Folk/Allegro label. He also has his rock band the Barflyz.
Lewis’ philosophy about music is simple: Talent is a God-given gift and must be shared regardless of monetary compensation. How did he come to this realization?
“Because I knew this gig on the 25th was coming up and I wasn’t going to get paid,” he joked about his upcoming guest appearance at the New Times Music Awards. “No, I just had this attitude when I was younger about getting paid for everything I do, and I realized that was unhealthy. I also realized how easy it was for me to learn to play. People struggle their whole lives, and for me it was easy. I started doing charitable work and it spilled over into my professional career. Sometimes you have to do things because they’re fun and you just do it for the art.”
Lewis plans to bring his acoustic guitar and “bang out a couple songs, maybe a Steve Miller song and an original. I’m just going to share my craft.”
You’ll also witness members of the local music community receive their awards, and five acts—Wynn, Joe Koenig, James Kaye, Nothing Ever Stays, and the Captain Nasty Band will compete for Best Live Band. The Bucket Busters, a youth percussion group, will open the show. Doors open at 6 p.m., and beer, wine, and other refreshments are available.
Glen Starkey is a Staff Writer for the Sun’s sister paper to the North, New Times. You can contact him about music in SLO County at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Sep 24 – Oct 1, 2015.