Although not coming from a musical family, he was influenced by his cousin Carl Lewis, who exposed him to Delta and Chicago blues at a very young age.

Lewis started playing guitar in 1964, studying under the R&B guitarist Dennis Gorgas, and later with Danny Kalb, founder and leader of The Blues Project.

In early 1969, Lewis became a regular fixture at "open mics" and "hootenanys" in and around the New York/New Jersey area, singing and playing acoustic blues guitar in the Delta and Piedmont styles.

Lewis has also returned to writing in other genres outside of Blues and his instrumental song "For Skylar" has been used by several broadcast radio stations as a music bed for public service announcements.

In the 1970s and 1980s, he narrated a number of Classic "Books on Tape", including works by James Fenimore Cooper (as Natty Bumppo) and Arthur Conan Doyle (as Dr. John Watson).