and Shakin Steven’s and there and then it blossomed again. He smiles, playing air guitar and I suck in the grip from the master. That grip! That sits in his sleep. That’s how you hold a Fender Telecaster in the solo to
Jitterbugginbaby.
Texas nineties: You are playing without the pianist tonight, just so you know
-In 1981 we released the first album, the LP “The thrilling sound of hot Rock-a-billy” with Red Hot Max and the Cats. Then we toured full time. In the nineties we were abroad and in Texas it was sold out.
In Sweden we had Per-Erik Jonsson at the piano. In the US, we had Alex Downing or Big Al as he was known. A giant afro american at two meters (six feet seven) and 350 pounds. Alexander, Big Al, Downings family could not afford shoes to school in Oklahoma when he was a child. He found a piano on a garbage tip and began to mimic Fats Domino. His self-taught piano has been called a gift from God. He was directly linked to the gown origin. Big Al died at 65.
Back to Texas and Red Hot Max story:
Out came an organizer ina cowboy hat and pointed at Alex when we rehearsed in the day.
-You Are playing without a pianist tonight, he told me ice cold. There was nothing to discuss. Remember. We talk the nineties.
Alex became a good friend. He was on several tours in the nineties and was over here in the late nineties. He was the real deal with a drive directly linked to the fifties. Alex was the generator that helped start the new music wave “back then”. It was a privilege to play with him.
Picture taken at the home of the Red Hot Max shortly before Al passed away in 2005. In his arms, Emi Olsson.
- The millennium brought a new wave and when Wanda Jackson toured in Sweden, we became her backing band and I got to back up my former teen idol.
He starts the car and thinks we’re done. Then I throw myself into the backseat. They look at me. Mats releases the brake..
-Our generations western world is changing. Its peak is about to level off. I would like, together with like-minded, to show my gratitude to the previous generations.