Live fast Love Hard Die Young - Part Three

Arriving to Denver – Colorado, was their America’s first sight. Better would only be to land in Memphis, Tennessee.
The “choice” of Denver was made due to the fact, that none of the Record Labels in Europe, had accepted to Record them, so the Band leader chose to write to a Label in America that he read in the back of one of the albums he used to listen to. He told them their story and their wish to record there. The owner of the Company, spite feeling a little suspicious said Ok, and they were astonished, because they always had in mind that probably in America people wouldn’t like European Rockabilly…
But that simple Ok, was all it took for them to pack.
They were welcomed by the same man that they spoke to two months before - a guy that couldn’t believe they actually were there when he got the message from the local airport, demanding directions to his house…
That’s were they hanged out most of the times and soon started referring to him as the Oncle. He was a well known artist of the Rockabilly scene in America, and he and his wife really seemed to love them as their own children.
After a few days of getting adjusted to a “brand new world", so damn different than they have been used to in every single aspects - bleeding noses due to the high and dry climate, people with strange habits like not knocking before entering, or going to another’s fridge without asking, they soon started to adapt to the new costumes, and immediately commenced going to the favourite rock-a-billy club, called Ziggies Saloon, where they were introduced to all the Cats of the area.
But they wanted was to play, so they borrowed some instruments from one of the local Bands, and the town of Denver was changed forever!
The boys took all of them by complete storm! Actually, as the Oncle once said: «they flat rocked our socks off», so they rapidly became the rock-a-billy "house band" and played almost every weekend there. People loved them: so polite with that amazing European good manners, so humble in their own success, and so young and good looking, with baby faces smiling lips and honest eyes… they were something else!
It didn't take them very long before they'd won over the hearts and minds of every Rockin' cat in town, including a number of International success Bands, that ‘till that moment, they only have heard of…
«Can you imagine?» They told to their friends, «We’ve met High Noon!!!»
For them this was the most outstanding thing, they were connecting with the big Sharks. How come a small town Band from Portugal that had to sold most of their musical equipment and personal possessions in order to buy airline tickets, a Band that was denied even from Rock House Records and from all others Labels - once none of them wrote them back, be now recording in America, meeting incredible musicians, and even improving themselves as musicians???
This was unbelievable, the kind of things that only happens in the Movies.
Well, it happened to them.
During the week, the boys got together with the Oncle almost every day, and jammed and recorded, and the Oncle was amazed with the talent they really were. He have heard other recordings they had made in studios, but none of those even came close to the power and spontaneity of the recordings they made together. And the Boys were thrilled. It was their dream finally coming true.
All this came to Portugal hears, with joy and worries. Everyone was astonished with their success, but that implied that they might just enjoy being there, and who knows? Perhaps they even loved living there, and in that case it could be that they wondered about making their lives there?
That was one of the concerns not only from the Parents, but also from the Girlfriends, and soon nobody expected them to return so soon… Who could blame them? After all, this was what they have travelled for during 32 hours, across the Atlantic Ocean to another Continent.
Though everyone at home seemed to handle well with all this, one of the girls kept very sceptic, and when she talked to the others girlfriends, she could not truly understand how come they were so calm, was it possible that only her was feeling that they would not return? Didn’t it matter to them? Of course she was happy for them, she loved them all, she always believed in them, and always knew the great potential the guys had, and probably due to that, she was feeling that in what concerned her relation ship, it wouldn’t be possible to work for long. She needed him near, either he came back to her, or she would go to him. But these thoughts were not acceptable to other girls that kept with their lives, waiting patiently, only she seemed to be going crazy…
One cannot deny that these feelings didn’t affect the guys there. We know it now. They suffered tremendously with the distance, they all missed their girls, and every time they spoke on the phone, they felt sorrow for being way. And every time a letter came in it was a mix of happiness and fear – normally every single day arrived correspondence for one of them, and they waited in line with hunger and tears in the eyes, wishing the Aunt would call their names. But spite it all, what they could do, was try to explain what they were doing and why, ‘cause in what concerns the big joy of being in America, they felt a little ashamed to admit it, because it seemed that if they said that that was what they always wished for and that Portugal didn’t matter anymore because only there they’d have some future, no one would comprehend or forgive them for thinking that way. After all they had no complaints, they missed their families and Porto and the girlfriends, but they were happy. And days go by, and then weeks and soon they stopped counting the time…