Big Al Downing

Best known for his hits, "Mr. Jones" and "Touch Me," and as a recipient of Billboard's New Artist of the Year and Single of the Year Awards (1979), Big Al Downing's five-decade career is still going strong.

With a new and exciting release, ONE OF A KIND, on Platinum Express Records, Big Al is entering yet another phase of an already illustrious career. Filled with the magical blend of country and R & B for which he is so well known, the project is Big Al personified: music without boundaries. This is honest, feel-good music at its very best. "I think it's the best music I've cut since "Mr. Jones," he says. "I wrote 12 of the songs and co-wrote the other two. It's me all over and I'm really proud of this record. The dream is still there for me. This is what I do. I still play over 75 key dates a year. It's what I love and there's still a #1 out there with my name on it. I've been truly blessed," says Big Al.

Born in 1940 in the small community of Centralia, Oklahoma, Big Al Downing grew up in a world filled with music - and hard work. At the age of eight, Al and his eight brothers and two sisters moved from Centralia to Lenapah, Oklahoma. There, the family formed a Gospel Quartet and sang for local churches.

Life was not easy for the Downings. Sharecroppers, the boys were paid 50 cents a ton for loading hay onto trailers for the King Ranch of Texas. With 30 bales of hay to the ton and the Oklahoma sun beating on your brow, you learn to find your pleasure where you can.

Big Al found his pleasure - and his future - in an old upright piano that the family salvaged from a junkyard. The boys loaded the piano onto the back of a hay truck and took it home to use for firewood, only to find that it was still playable. Big Al's salvation was at hand. "I was about 13 when we brought that piano home. For awhile, it was just a stand for the radio," he laughs. "But eventually, I started picking out Fats Domino tunes...and before you knew it, the kids in school were asking if I could play tunes at recess. I never dreamed that it would take me to all the places that I've been."

The Downings picked cotton and loaded trailers with hay, cattle and horses, often to the sound of the truckers' radios, which were tuned to country music. The days were long, but the nights would find the family gathered round to listen to the radio. On WSM-AM, the Grand Ol' Opry was king. Minnie Pearl, Porter Waggoner, Merle Haggard and Hank Williams were the artists of the day and Big Al Downing loved their music. After the Opry signed off, Big Al would tune in to WLAC Radio to hear John Richbourg's "From Way Down South In Dixie." John R played "race" music (now called R & B) with a mix of Gospel, Delta Blues and Rock & Roll thrown in for good measure. Big Al was hooked.

At the urging of a friend, Downing entered a song contest, sponsored by KGGF Radio in Coffeeville, Kansas. Al performed "Blueberry Hill" and took first place. In the audience that night was a musician by the name of Bobby Poe, who was so impressed with Al's performance that he asked him to join his all-white band.

In the 1950s, racial mixing was virtually unknown, however, Poe believed the group could attract more dates if Al would play piano and sing Fats Domino, Little Richard, Chuck Berry and B.B. King-type material. Bobby and his Poe Cats would cover Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and Buddy Holly, thus appealing to a broader audience. The plan struck Al as a way to do what he longed to do and make money doing it. He joined the Poe Cats and set off, at the age of 16, on his first tour.

The group landed a standing gig in Boston, Massachusetts, playing seven days a week. Al was paid $90 a week for his efforts, but the memories, he says, are priceless. "It was a crazy time; a time of change. There wasn't much money, but the music was great. I wouldn't have missed it for the world."

A two-year stint with Wanda Jackson followed, and Downing had the pleasure of playing piano on her biggest hit, "Let's Have A Party." During this period, Al began his own recording career and had his first international hit with "Down On The Farm." Success followed on two fronts: recording and songwriting. Big Al suddenly had cuts by Fats Domino, Bobby Blue Bland and a host of other artists, as well as hits of his own.

Signed to Gene Autry's Challenge Records, Big Al Downing had made the big time and he set out to make the most of it. A string of label changes propelled him onto the charts a phenomenal 27 times. He was nominated as Best New Artist by the Academy of Country Music and has appeared on Hee Haw, Nashville Now and Dick Clark's American Bandstand television shows. A world-class performer, Downing has entertained audiences in the U.S., Japan, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, England, France, Holland, the Bahama and the Cayman Islands. He still loves to "hit the stage," and he says, "I get a thrill out of making the audience feel good. It's not about me, it's about the people who are listening and making them happy."

Big Al has given his life to making great music and making people happy. "The rewards," he says, "have been many. I only have one regret and that is not keeping track of that ol' upright piano."