Texasschrammeln

GRUEN & CHROMY

The first time that Manfred Chromy was noticeable to me was at a show he opened for Jerry Lee Lewis. He played electric bass and already had "it"! After years with the "Salty Dogs" he now plays with a Las Vegas style Rock´n´Rollbandand and with me.
Today he is a nearly perfect slap bass player.From Rock-a-Billy and Western Swing he came to jazz and Hillbilly, and I participated always along the way. In 2000 we founded the "Texas Schrammeln" a group to play both traditional viennese folksongs and self penned stuff as well as the american songbook. Manfred also is one of a kind of diver into Texas Music, just like me. We just love Bob Wills and Ernest Tubb, the Derailers and Johnny Gimble!
Texas to me is:
Hats of giant-size just as praries and egos! Already after my first listening experience with Texan music I was fascinated!
Cool, relaxed and swinging!. Bob Wills was cool, Lefty Frzzell was cool, also Willie Nelson and Lyle Lovett. Once I realised Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jack Teagarden, Flaco Jimenez and Lance Armstrong also were Texans, I was lost!.
But only my friendship with Mike Montgopmery got me to my first contact with a REAL Texan. Mike, astronomer and Fiddler, then also first brought me to Austin, Texas. There I feel as much at home as at home in Vienna!

Photos below show the "Texas Schrammeln" doing a bi-musical gig
(Viennese and American).