DOWNING, BIG AL
(*1940)
DOWNING, BIG AL (b. Lenapah, Oklahoma, January 9, 1940) Al Downing, pioneering black pianist/songwriter/vocalist in country, ROCKABILLY, and R&B styles, was born on a small farm in Oklahoma near the Kansas line. His father was a sharecropper who enjoyed listening to THE GRAND OLE OPRY radio program, thus exposing his son to country music at an early age. The large family—Al had nine brothers and two sisters—formed their own GOSPEL choir when he was just entering his teens, and performed…