Asleep At The Wheel

Asleep at the Wheel emerged in the early 1970s as the central force sustaining Western swing as a vibrant musical tradition. Throughout decades on the road the band earned widespread acclaim not merely for safeguarding vintage styles but for reshaping the genre into a continually evolving expression. Although more than eighty musicians have cycled through the lineup since its formation, Ray Benson has anchored the project since 1970, ensuring the ensemble remains focused on classic Western swing repertoire. Their 1973 debut album Comin' Right at Ya arrived with the signature sound already intact, while 1993’s A Tribute to the Music of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys offered an exuberant salute to their chief inspiration; 2007’s Reinventing the Wheel captured the group in buoyant form, and 2021’s Half a Hundred Years marked their fiftieth anniversary with an all-star gathering.

Singer and guitarist Benson, born Ray Benson Seifert, absorbed an eclectic mix of sounds while growing up in Philadelphia, with jazz exerting particular influence. He launched Asleep at the Wheel in Paw Paw, West Virginia, in 1970 alongside longtime associate Lucky Oceans on steel guitar and Leroy Preston on rhythm guitar, soon recruiting recent high-school graduate Chris O’Connell as vocalist. The unit initially performed straight country material in neighborhood clubs before pivoting to Western swing after encountering the style through Merle Haggard’s Bob Wills tribute record and the eclectic country-rock approach of Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen. Commander Cody in fact facilitated their connection with manager Joe Kerr, who urged a relocation to San Francisco late in 1971. Keyboardist Floyd Domino joined shortly thereafter, and the band secured a steady engagement at Berkeley’s Longbranch Saloon. A favorable mention from Van Morrison in Rolling Stone helped secure a United Artists contract, resulting in the release of Comin' Right at Ya in 1973.

The following year the group shifted to Austin, Texas, and signed with Epic Records. Their self-titled Epic debut appeared in 1974, and a cover of Louis Jordan’s “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie” became their first single to register on the country charts. Fiddler Lisa Silver and trumpeter Bobby Womack were added, after which the band moved to Capitol. The 1975 album Texas Gold reached the country Top Ten and yielded their sole Top Ten country single, “The Letter That Johnny Walker Read.” That same year they performed on the first regular episode of Austin City Limits. Despite ongoing membership fluctuations, they issued a series of strong albums through the remainder of the decade: Wheelin' and Dealin' (1976), The Wheel (1977), and Collision Course (1978), the last featuring their initial Grammy-winning track, an instrumental reading of Count Basie’s “One O'Clock Jump.”

Asleep at the Wheel switched to MCA for 1980’s Framed, yet the period brought difficulties: founding member Lucky Oceans departed, Chris O’Connell stepped away to raise a family, and mounting debt compelled the musicians to take on commercial and film work. These setbacks kept the band out of the studio for several years; when they resurfaced on Dot/MCA with a self-titled album in 1985, it received little notice. After issuing the small-label set Pasture Prime later that year, Benson pursued outside production work and eventually regained a foothold at Epic. O’Connell had rejoined by then, and the refreshed roster included fiddler Larry Franklin, steel guitarist John Ely, pianist and accordionist Tim Alexander, saxophonist Mike Francis, bassist Jon Mitchell, and drummer David Sanger. This configuration delivered the successful 1987 comeback album Asleep at the Wheel 10, which returned the band to the country album and singles Top 20 for the first time in more than a decade via “House of Blue Lights.” The track “String of Pars” earned their second Grammy for Best Country Instrumental and included guest work from former Texas Playboy Johnny Gimble. The 1988 follow-up Western Standard Time sustained the momentum, securing another Best Country Instrumental Grammy for “Sugarfoot Rag.”

In 1990 the group moved to Arista and recorded Keepin' Me Up Nights, which underperformed relative to its predecessors. Further turnover followed, with O’Connell exiting once more, prompting Benson to assemble a new lineup featuring Francis, Sanger, fiddler Ricky Turpin, bassist David Miller, and steel guitarist and Dobroist Cyndi Cashdollar. Two albums appeared on Liberty/Capitol: the guest-filled 1993 tribute A Tribute to the Music of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, which won a Grammy for the instrumental “Red Wing,” and 1995’s The Wheel Keeps on Rollin'. Their next major studio effort, Ride with Bob, emerged on DreamWorks in 1999 and spotlighted fiddler Jason Roberts, a young relative of Johnny Gimble, along with pianist and second fiddler Chris Booher. This second explicit homage to Bob Wills garnered additional Grammys and attracted outside collaborators such as the Manhattan Transfer and Squirrel Nut Zippers. An album with Willie Nelson, Willie and the Wheel, surfaced in 2009, followed in 2010 by It’s a Good Day, a collaboration with longtime Texas Playboy Leon Rausch.

The relentlessly touring ensemble next documented its live energy on two releases: 2012’s Miles and Miles of Texas and 2014’s Having a Party Live. In 2015 Ray Benson issued the autobiography Comin' Right at Ya, written with David Menconi, recounting his experiences and the band’s history. That year Asleep at the Wheel also delivered Still the King: Celebrating the Music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, their third Bob Wills tribute, which featured an array of guests including Merle Haggard, Lyle Lovett, the Avett Brothers, and Old Crow Medicine Show. The set earned strong reviews and a Grammy for Best Recording Package. New Routes, a collection largely of original material, arrived in 2018 and introduced fiddler Katie Shore. The group marked its fiftieth anniversary with 2021’s Half a Hundred Years, an album boasting appearances by Willie Nelson, George Strait, Emmylou Harris, and Lyle Lovett, plus contributions from original members Chris O’Connell, Lucky Oceans, and Leroy Preston.