♪ Believe he tried ♪ ♪ Make amends but I wanna try ♪ (keys clinking) (car door clicking) - [Paul] Lewis has been around for a long time.

He's one of the most famous local musicians in Hampton Roads.

He's opened for Bob Dylan, Talking Heads, John Prine, just to name a few.

But despite all the brushes with fame, he remains our local musician, a real Hampton Roads treasure.

("Peaceful Land" by Lewis McGehee) ♪ I was standing ♪ ♪ On a white, sandy beach ♪ - [Paul] It's hard to think of anyone in the region who has been as prolific, played as many gigs, played in front of as many people.

And after all these years, he's still ubiquitous in the area.

You'll see him on the marquees around town, still playing several nights per week.

He's had great success, and he doesn't seem like he's slowing down a bit.

♪ And then she said, Lewis ♪ ♪ I know you're tired ♪ ♪ 'Cause you're hardworking man ♪ ♪ So I'm gonna take you ♪ ♪ To a very peaceful land ♪ ♪ Very peaceful land ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ (attendee cheering) (audience applauding) - As in my first band was I was 11 or 12.

So whatever grade that is, you know, sixth, sixth grade-ish, something like that.

So I was playing in bands all through high school.

And of course, it was always a sideline, just a sideline.

I didn't have a clear vision, but kind of, I was rolling towards this way.

In the '70s, it was different.

'70s, I was really out there trying to make it.

I wanted to be, you know, 'cause all I knew at that point in the '70s, I went into this, quote, "career," that was either make it big or starve.

There was not a lot of middle ground for what I did.

And if there was middle ground, you had to be on the road all the time 'cause '86, '87, I toured with Hornsby, and still trying to get my material out there, and hoping that some record label somewhere would say, "Yeah, we'll sign Lewis."

But that didn't happen.

So somewhere around late '80s, early '90s, I said, "You know what?

I really think this is where I'm supposed to be."

And it wasn't a point of setting my goals lower.

It was kind of feeling like, "This feels right."

It was a reconciliation with where I was at, who I was, 'cause I wanted to be a dad.

So I started thinking, this is actually the best of both worlds.

I get to play my stuff.

I get paid for it.

I didn't care about being a star.

(relaxing guitar music) I wanted my music to be the backdrop for people's lives.

I wanted to put on the cassette, or the album, or the CD.

I got that where people come and I play my stuff, and I think my music is their backdrop, but it's on a more consolidated basis.

It's smaller and really more intimate in a way.

♪ Katie, don't go ♪ ♪ It's too hard to let go of this ♪ ♪ Katie, don't go ♪ ("Katie Don't Go" by Lewis McGehee) (audience cheering) Thank you.

(audience applauding) We'll do that.

Yes, yes.

- Learning, learning young.

- I know you stuck some tips in there too.

I raised four girls in the bars, and it all- - Four?

- I raised four daughters in the bars, and it worked out.

- Yes, I'd seen your one daughter play up here with you.

- Casey.

- Yes.

- Yes, the keyboard player.

Yeah.

- Love it.

- What we've been able to build, which I could never have foreseen, and by build, I just mean the children, having them to center me and give me such a purpose.

And then the fact that Lewis was able to make that happen for me, really, and that he was able to support us, and be there for anything we needed, and make us laugh.

- I had no idea that when I committed to being in this area in 1980 that I'd be able to continue to do what I do.

And fortunately, I happened to be in an area that's been really responsive to me personally, I think.

And I don't take credit for that.

I give credit to the people who come to see me play.

And I feel like I've developed friendships.

So many nights when I'm playing, I don't feel like I'm playing to an audience.

I feel like I'm playing to a bunch of friends.

Hopefully, it's, like, something comfortable for them, like, put on an album.

I'm doing that, like, let's put on the Lewis McGehee second set album.

And I've just been really fortunate and got some great friendships out of this entire thing.

And why would I go anywhere else?

(uplifting guitar music) (uplifting guitar music continues) - [Attendee] Yeah.

(audience cheering) - Thank you, thank you.

(lighthearted guitar music) - Yes, started laughing.

- So we'd be super angry, and he would figure out a way to make us laugh, which, like, it wasn't actually funny.

- [Jolie] We were mostly just annoyed.

- But then at that point, you start laughing and like, kinda get over it, so it worked.

- It did work.

It's true.

- But there's always a part, not every time.

- I also have a lot of good memories.

- You don't bring that up in your therapy or anything, do you?

(group laughing) - Getting a guitar for Christmas was always this thing.

- A rite of passage.

- Yeah, it was like a rite of passage that you got a guitar for Christmas.

It's like, all right.

- You're in the band.

- Yeah, you're in the band.

- Yeah, I started playing out with you when I was about 15, I think, was when I first played guitar with you.

♪ It is easy to do ♪ ♪ The things that you wanted ♪ ♪ I bought that for you ♪ (attendee cheering) - Well, we did a lot of recordings too, you know?

I captured little moments and stuff and got people, got y'all used to listen, putting headphones on and hearing your voice with all the effects, that reverb and delay.

Ah, it just sounds real.

Back in the day, I would teach, you know, 30 hours a week.

It was almost like a full-time gig.

And then go out and do gigs at night.

So I was playing guitar a lot, five to six hours during the day and then go out and play a three or four-hour gig.

And that was, you know, five, six days a week for 40 years, pretty much.

- Your songwriting is very introspective and very emotional, and you know, it's not party music, it's thinking songs.

And I feel like that gave, at least for me, an opportunity to see a side of how you think and how you feel and all of that that most people never get from their parents.

- Yeah, it's kinda cool 'cause I do think some of the lines in some of my songs have become, sorry, ingrained, so.

Don't capture that.

(group laughing) - [Kayce] Well, maybe you should.

Well, 'cause I think too, there's a permission that we got to express our emotions and like... - [Lewis] Cry.

- We're crying chevalier.

- I think that's just Irish.

♪ And I'm saying you treated me ♪ - I've been thinking about the music lately as I've matured in thinking about what it is that works for some people and not for others, and I think it's really, like, a combination of things.

It's the sound, the songs that pull people in.

And this, it's vibrational, I truly believe that.

But I think it's the presentation, what you could call performance, maybe, but I think that people feel whether it's sincere or not, and that's what I hope that I've been able to convey with music is a sincerity in the music that I've written and that I'm trying to project and to get them to feel similar feelings to me, whatever that may be, on a given night.

It's very transitory.

It's very in the moment.

I kinda like that too 'cause once the gig's done, it's done.

I'm driving home, and it's just like, it's almost like it never happened.

But in the moment, it can be very magical.

When I get into the moment, I am lost in it.

And I truly mean that.

When I'm playing, I feel like I get into that song.

And some of these songs, I've played 10,000 times.

But once I start going, I disappear in the song.

Even if it's repetitive, even it's the same venues, and I see the same people, but I feel connected to 'em through the music and they're part of who I am as a personality, and hopefully, vice versa that I have contributed to their life in a way that they have contributed to mine.

We kind of feed off of each other, and that's when the magic begins 'cause I feel the energy coming from them that they're appreciating what I'm doing, and it makes me wanna give more.

Hopefully, it continues to build to a point to where we all feel this, the same thing and that everybody feels good.

That's the bottom line.

You want people to feel good.

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ Powers of a man I grew up to be ♪ ("Brave New World" by Lewis McGehee) ♪ And the individual is never seen ♪ ♪ As I'm looking back to see this brave new world ♪ ("Brave New World" by Lewis McGehee continues) ♪ And so ♪