Inside were a ragtag group of musicians calling themselves the Medicine Ball Caravan and they invited Asleep at the Wheel to open their upcoming show in Washington D.C. Then, in 1970, two hippie buses pulled up to the farm looking for the band they’d heard about. “My reaction was we need to take this music to my generation to show them it’s not the political posturing that is important, it is the soul of the music.” “Music became a rallying cry for these disparate groups,” he recalls. Although he gravitated toward honky-tonk and swing music, Benson stood on the opposite side of the generation gap – a young man opposed to the Vietnam War.
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Raised in Philadelphia, Benson dropped out of college in 1969 and moved to a farm near Paw Paw, West Virginia, to figure out how to put a band together with two friends, Lucky Oceans and LeRoy Preston. I’m just a singer and a songwriter, and a pretty good guitar player, but my best talent is convincing people to jump on board and play this music.” “When someone joins the band, I say, ‘Learn everything that’s ever been done, then put your own stamp on it.’ I love to hear how they interpret what we do. “I’m the reason it’s still together, but the reason it’s popular is because we’ve had the greatest singers and players,” Benson explains. Then, in the fall, a career retrospective recorded with the new band - and a few special guests - will carry Asleep at the Wheel back onto the road, where they’ve remained a staple for five decades. First, their Better Times EP compiles three new tracks: “All I’m Asking,” a rousing plea for a second chance the hopeful title track, about getting back to life as it once was (namely, before the pandemic) and “Columbus Stockade Blues,” a traditional tune arranged in the spirit of Willie Nelson and Shirley Collie’s 1960s version. That merging of past and present is effortlessly woven throughout two of the band’s new releases. Although the lineup has changed countless times since its inception, Benson’s mission has never wavered. It seemed like an ambitious goal for a 19-year-old, yet Benson has done exactly that – traversing the globe as an ambassador of Western swing music and introducing its irresistible sound to generation after generation. In the fall, a career retrospective recorded with the current lineup - and a few special guests - will carry the band back onto the road, where they’ve remained a staple for five decades.įifty years ago, Asleep at the Wheel’s Ray Benson wrote in his journal that he wanted to form a band to bring the roots of American pop music into the present. Inspired by Western swing and honky-tonk country, the band has accrued 10 Grammy Awards. Although the band got its start on a farm in Paw Paw, West Virginia, Asleep at the Wheel became a cornerstone of the Austin, Texas, scene upon its arrival in 1973.
Founded in 1970, Asleep at the Wheel has been part of the American roots music landscape for more than 50 years.
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