BIG AL DOWNING
A COUNTRY MUSIC LEGEND MULTI AWARD WINNING BIG AL DOWNING
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LOVE'S JUST A SUITCASE IN MY HAND
WHAT MORE CAN WE SAY, ANOTHER BIG AL DOWNING CLASSIC FROM HIS LATEST ALBUM RELEASE "BACK TO MY ROOTS" ON MEGA INTERNATIONAL RECORDS
BE BOP CAT
A FUN SONG FROM THE COUNTRY MUSIC LEGEND BIG AL DOWNING FROM HIS LATEST ALBUM RELEASE "BACK TO MY ROOTS" ON MEGA INTERNATIONAL rECORDS
DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT
A HOT COUNTRY DANCE SONG FROM THE COUNTRY MUSIC LEGEND "BIG AL DOWNING" FROM HIS LATEST ALBUM RELEASE "BACK TO MY ROOTS" ON MEGA INTERNATIONAL RECORDS
EVEYBODY'S GOT A DREAM
COUNTRY MUSIC LEGEND BIG AL DOWNING AT HIS BEST FROM HIS LATEST CD/ALBUM RELEASE "BACK TO MY ROOTS" ON MEGA INTERNATIONAL RECORDS
I'LL ALWAYS COME BACK TO LOVING YOU
BIG AL DOWNING, COUNTRY MUSIC LEGEND AT HIS BEST WITH THIS SONG FROM HIS LATEST RELEASE ON MEGA INTERNATIONAL RECORDS "BACK TO MY ROOTS"
Show all (10)
Big Al Downing has built a widely respected country career as both a rock-a-billy and sentimental artist, earning acclaim particularly in various European countries. That career includes 15 Billboard country chart hits between 1979 and 1989, three of which were in the top 20. It also includes country songwriting, playing backup for two legendary country performers and being named Billboard magazine's Number One New Male Country Singles Artist in 1979.
Downing wrote all of his top 20 hits, which are, "Touch Me (I'll be your fool once more)", which peaked at No. 18 in 1979, "Mr. Jones" which peaked at No. 20 in 1979 and marked Downing's first solo country chart entry, and "Bring It on Home", which peaked at No. 20 in 1980.Born in 1940 on a farm in Lenapah, Oklahoma, Downing listened primarily to country music and also to R&B and other kinds of music as a child. He continued his heavy dosage of country as a young man, listening to it incessantly on the radio as he worked driving truckloads of hay and alfalfa from Oklahoma to Texas.
"All they played all day long was country, I just grew to love it", Downing says in a 1992 country trade magazine article.His first formal singing came at about age ten when he sang in a gospel choir with his father and eleven siblings. During that time he also exercised his musical curiosity and skill by teaching himself to play a piano he found in a trash dump. He then developed a particular liking for the music of Fats Domino and won a talent contest at age 14 singing Domino's famous "Blueberry Hill" song.
Domino would later record two hit songs written by Downing - Mary, Oh Mary and Heartbreak Hill.Having been highly impressed with Downing's performance in the talent contest, the leader of the rockabilly band later known as the Poe Kats asked Downing to join his band. Downing joined in 1957 and remained until 1964. Soon after Downing's arrival, the Poe Kats released on the Challenge Records label, the rockabilly standard "Down on the Farm". Other notable songs Downing recorded with the group are "Yes I'm Loving You" and "Georgia Slop".Just after they recorded "Down on the Farm", the Poe Kats were signed to back, the then emerging rockabilly queen, Wanda Jackson, for whom they played during most of 1958.
Among Downing's three bandmates in backing Jackson was later country great Buck Owens. Some of Jackson's hits with Downing playing for her are, "Let's Have a Party", "Right or Wrong" and "In the Middle of a Heartache"."(One of my bandmates) and I would do solo spots warming up the audience before she came on". Downing says of his days playing with Jackson.
"Frankly, there wasn't as much prejudice as you'd expect even though I'd stand beside her and sing with her. She liked my playing and she'd introduce me to the audience, which helped. Sure ... there'd be times when they had to sneak me into a hotel with a towel over my head, but I didn't hear any racial remarks".In the liner notes to her "Let's have a party" recording, Jackson adds, "Very often after the show, the group would have to smuggle Downing into a motel room in a bass fiddle body bag". She praises his ability, saying he "was restrained and screwing up in the studio until I told him to throw away the piano stool and play standing up as if he were giving a performance".Playing for the Poe Kats and touring with Jackson put Downing on stage in front of country audiences throughout the United States and permitted him to open for such stars as Red Sovine, Dottie West, Don Gibson and Marty Robbins, for whom he also recorded.
This exposure led to a number of solo recording contracts for Downing, including ones with the Columbia, White Rock and Carlton record labels.While Downing enjoyed moderate success with his recording of the Marty Robbins song, "Story of My Life," these early recording contracts did little for his career. In 1970 he had his first hit; with "I'll be Holding On" making it to the R&B chart.
Downing spent much of the 1970's touring on his own throughout the world and downplaying country in his performances. Then in 1978 he returned to a concentration on his country roots with his signing to the Warner label. Though Downing scored big hit singles with Warner in 1979 and 1980, the label would not finance a full album of his work. Nor would other major Nashville record labels."I've been to every major label in Nashville and I've been turned down by every one," Downing says. "I couldn't even get a job as a writer.
The first thing they'd say is, "You're black, number one, so you've got a handicap". That's prejudice. It should be you're handicapped because you can't sing good.It's not the fans. It's not the people. It's the people who put the money behind you. They say, "Well, we don't know if there's a market for a black guy singing country music anymore." But I refuse to let that stop me. You can't do shows and watch white audiences give you standing ovations and then let some guy who sits all day in an air-conditioned office tell you you're not marketable."Despite rating huge billboards in Vienna, Austria, and earning frequent invitations to perform at music festivals in other European countries, the best Downing realizes from U.S. record labels since his refocus on country is commitments from independents.
Among those independents , releases was "I'll Be Loving You," became a No. 48 country chart hit in 1982, on Doc Holiday's Tug Boat Records & Mega International, for whom he still records."The road has been rocky since "Mr. Jones" and all those hits," Downing says, "but it ain't going to get too rocky that it'll make me quit.. My only regret is the fact that there are so many black artists who never get to show what they can do because they are locked out ... I just believe in my heart that I have something to contribute to country music, and with the help of Famed Record Producer Doc Holiday and Mega International.
"WE WILL CONTRIBUTE!!!."Band/artist history
Big Al Downing has built a widely respected country career as both a rock-a-billy and sentimental artist, earning acclaim particularly in various European countries. That career includes 15 Billboard country chart hits between 1979 and 1989, three of which were in the top 20. It also includes country songwriting, playing backup for two legendary country performers and being named Billboard magazine's Number One New Male Country Singles Artist in 1979.
Downing wrote all of his top 20 hits, which are, "Touch Me (I'll be your fool once more)", which peaked at No. 18 in 1979, "Mr. Jones" which peaked at No. 20 in 1979 and marked Downing's first solo country chart entry, and "Bring It on Home", which peaked at No. 20 in 1980.Born in 1940 on a farm in Lenapah, Oklahoma, Downing listened primarily to country music and also to R&B and other kinds of music as a child. He continued his heavy dosage of country as a young man, listening to it incessantly on the radio as he worked driving truckloads of hay and alfalfa from Oklahoma to Texas.
"All they played all day long was country, I just grew to love it", Downing says in a 1992 country trade magazine article.His first formal singing came at about age ten when he sang in a gospel choir with his father and eleven siblings. During that time he also exercised his musical curiosity and skill by teaching himself to play a piano he found in a trash dump. He then developed a particular liking for the music of Fats Domino and won a talent contest at age 14 singing Domino's famous "Blueberry Hill" song.
Domino would later record two hit songs written by Downing - Mary, Oh Mary and Heartbreak Hill.Having been highly impressed with Downing's performance in the talent contest, the leader of the rockabilly band later known as the Poe Kats asked Downing to join his band. Downing joined in 1957 and remained until 1964. Soon after Downing's arrival, the Poe Kats released on the Challenge Records label, the rockabilly standard "Down on the Farm". Other notable songs Downing recorded with the group are "Yes I'm Loving You" and "Georgia Slop".Just after they recorded "Down on the Farm", the Poe Kats were signed to back, the then emerging rockabilly queen, Wanda Jackson, for whom they played during most of 1958.
Among Downing's three bandmates in backing Jackson was later country great Buck Owens. Some of Jackson's hits with Downing playing for her are, "Let's Have a Party", "Right or Wrong" and "In the Middle of a Heartache"."(One of my bandmates) and I would do solo spots warming up the audience before she came on". Downing says of his days playing with Jackson.
"Frankly, there wasn't as much prejudice as you'd expect even though I'd stand beside her and sing with her. She liked my playing and she'd introduce me to the audience, which helped. Sure ... there'd be times when they had to sneak me into a hotel with a towel over my head, but I didn't hear any racial remarks".In the liner notes to her "Let's have a party" recording, Jackson adds, "Very often after the show, the group would have to smuggle Downing into a motel room in a bass fiddle body bag". She praises his ability, saying he "was restrained and screwing up in the studio until I told him to throw away the piano stool and play standing up as if he were giving a performance".Playing for the Poe Kats and touring with Jackson put Downing on stage in front of country audiences throughout the United States and permitted him to open for such stars as Red Sovine, Dottie West, Don Gibson and Marty Robbins, for whom he also recorded.
This exposure led to a number of solo recording contracts for Downing, including ones with the Columbia, White Rock and Carlton record labels.While Downing enjoyed moderate success with his recording of the Marty Robbins song, "Story of My Life," these early recording contracts did little for his career. In 1970 he had his first hit; with "I'll be Holding On" making it to the R&B chart.
Downing spent much of the 1970's touring on his own throughout the world and downplaying country in his performances. Then in 1978 he returned to a concentration on his country roots with his signing to the Warner label. Though Downing scored big hit singles with Warner in 1979 and 1980, the label would not finance a full album of his work. Nor would other major Nashville record labels."I've been to every major label in Nashville and I've been turned down by every one," Downing says. "I couldn't even get a job as a writer.
The first thing they'd say is, "You're black, number one, so you've got a handicap". That's prejudice. It should be you're handicapped because you can't sing good.It's not the fans. It's not the people. It's the people who put the money behind you. They say, "Well, we don't know if there's a market for a black guy singing country music anymore." But I refuse to let that stop me. You can't do shows and watch white audiences give you standing ovations and then let some guy who sits all day in an air-conditioned office tell you you're not marketable."Despite rating huge billboards in Vienna, Austria, and earning frequent invitations to perform at music festivals in other European countries, the best Downing realizes from U.S. record labels since his refocus on country is commitments from independents.
Among those independents , releases was "I'll Be Loving You," became a No. 48 country chart hit in 1982, on Doc Holiday's Tug Boat Records & Mega International, for whom he still records."The road has been rocky since "Mr. Jones" and all those hits," Downing says, "but it ain't going to get too rocky that it'll make me quit.. My only regret is the fact that there are so many black artists who never get to show what they can do because they are locked out ... I just believe in my heart that I have something to contribute to country music, and with the help of Famed Record Producer Doc Holiday and Mega International & Tug Boat Records
"WE WILL CONTRIBUTE!!!."READ MORE
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Comments (16)
BRILLIANT SONG, TAKES ME BACK TO THE SIXTIES,
Hi,
'Love's just a suitcase' - great song!
Best wishes
M&P xx
Hi Guys...
IMPORTANT NOTE HERE FOR ALL TO READ....
For years now I have been promoting Al on some of my Soundclick stations.
It was only today that I realized Big Al has passed. He will be remembered by many as a great contributor to country music.
If you would like to read more about Big Al and his music and life, paste the following link into your browser.
http://www.cmt.com/artists/news/1505212/07052005/downing_big_al.jhtml
hi al terrific sound in here voted for love is just a suitcase in hand . great job my friend anna marie
Big' Al.... Big' Al....
Hugs, Hugs...... I just uploaded some new tunes to my SC Studio! It would mean a lot to if you get a chance to drop'in and take a listen! Hope life is treating you kind... Take Care my music friend..
Randee
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