Margaret Lewis (music)

For the American playwright, see M. E. H. Lewis.

Margaret Lewis Warwick, known for much of her career as Margaret Lewis (born Snyder, Texas, about 1941)^[1] is a country music/rockabilly singer/songwriter and music entrepreneur.

Lewis's family moved early in her life to Levelland, Texas, where she grew up singing in the Baptist church choir and listening to rockabilly and r&b. In high school she formed a band, the Thunderbolts, and they took second place in a talent show in Lubbock in 1957. After some guest appearances on the Louisiana Hayride radio program, she joined the cast in 1958. In Shreveport where the show was based she met Mira Ann Smith (1926-1989), a local guitarist and aspiring songwriter who had her own record label, Ram Records. Through Smith, Lewis and her sister Rose went on to tour with local artist Dale Hawkins and sing backup vocals on some of his Chess Records recordings.

Lewis continued to record on Smith's Ram Records for several years, until the label was closed down in the early 1960s. Lewis and Smith then decided to concentrate on songwriting, and their first big success was "Mountain of Love", a country hit for David Houston in 1963. Lewis and Smith moved to Nashville and signed a deal with Shelby Singleton to write songs for his SSS International and Plantation Records labels. They wrote a number of hits for various artists from 1967-1971, perhaps the best known being Reconsider Me, which has charted for at least four different artists.

Lewis continued to record at times, and she had her only chart appearance as a singer with "Honey (I Miss You Too)" (1968), which peaked at #74 on the country charts. It was an answer song to Bobby Goldsboro's "Honey".

In 1981 Lewis returned to Shreveport and married Alton Warwick, a cousin of Mira Lewis. In the late 1980's she became active in efforts to revive the Municipal Auditorium in Shreveport, where the Hayride had performed until its end in 1960. She formed a nonprofit organization to support the effort in 1997^[2]. She also became the chairperson of the Louisiana Music Commission, an effort by the Louisiana state government to promote the music industry in the state.

In 1998 she released an album titled "...but I know what I like" on her own Ram Records, under the byline Maggie Lewis Warwick & The Thunderbolts!.

Two Margaret Lewis songs were used in the episode Lassoed of The L Word.^[3]

In 2009 Margaret Lewis Warwick received the OffBeat magazine award for Lifetime Achievement in the Music Business.^[4]

Songwriting hits

All of these are credited to Margaret Lewis and Mira (or "Myra") Smith.

• "Mountain of Love" - David Houston, #2 Country, 1963
• "I Almost Called Your Name" - Margaret Whiting, #4 Adult Contemporary, 1967
• "I Am the Grass" - Dee Mullins, #64 Country, 1968
• "The Girl Most Likely" - Jeannie C. Riley, #6 Country, 1968
• "There Never Was A Time" - Jeannie C. Riley, #5 Country, 1968
• "Reconsider Me" - Johnny Adams, #8 R&B, 1969; Ray Pillow, #38 Country, 1969; John Wesley Ryles, #39 Country, 1971; Narvel Felts, #2 Country, 1975
• "I Can't Be All Bad" - Johnny Adams, #45 R&B, 1969
• "The Wedding Cake" - Connie Francis, #33 Country, 1969
• "Soul Shake" - Peggy Scott and Jo Jo Benson, #27 R&B, 1969; Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, #43 Pop, 1970
• "The Rib" - Jeannie C. Riley, #32 Country, 1969
• "My Man" - Jeannie C. Riley, #60 Country, 1970
• "Country Girl" - Jeannie C. Riley, #7 Country, 1970
• "Oh Singer" - Jeannie C. Riley, #4 Country, 1971

References

1. ^ bio of Lewis by Phil Davies on rockabilly.nl
2. '^ Reconsider Me': Margaret Lewis Warwick and the Louisiana Hayride, Tracey Laird, p. 75-87, in The Women of Country Music: A Reader, eds. Charles Wolfe and James Akenson, University Press of Kentucky, 2003
3. ^ The L Word Online, soundtrack listing for episode 3, season 4
4. ^ OffBeat magazine, 1/1/2009