Asleep at the Wheel

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Asleep at the Wheel

Country band

The sounds of old-time Texas swing bands live on today in the work of Asleep at the Wheel, a group that marked its twentieth anniversary in 1990. Asleep at the Wheel has earned considerable critical reputation—and a devoted following—by wandering over a wide spectrum of America’s musical roots. The group plays traditional Texas swing jazzed up with big band overtones, standard country fare, zydeco-Cajun, blues, rock, and boogie, all in a high-spirited style that one critic described as “sweatily entertaining.”

Akron Beacon Journal correspondent Jack’Hurst wrote: “There arguably is no more musically wide-ranging band in the whole country field than Asleep at the Wheel, yet its maintenance of country identity—albeit non-mainstream—tends to be pretty unswerving.” For many years an ever-changing group of musicians made a modest living working with Asleep at the Wheel, mostly in live appearances across the United States and Canada. Today the band has become the latest rage on radio; its 1990 album, Keepin’ Me Up Nights, has sold better than any of its previous work.

For the Record…

Band formed in 1970 in Philadelphia, PA; original members included Ray Benson (vocals, horn, guitar), Chris O’Connell (vocals, guitar), and Lucky Oceans. More than seventy-five musicians have played with Asleep at the Wheel on instruments ranging from fiddle and steel guitar to saxophone and accordion. Current membership includes Benson, John Ely, Mike Francis, David Sanger, Tim Alexander, John Mitchell, and Larry Franklin.

Group signed with United Artists, 1971, and produced first album, Comin’ Right at Ya, 1971. Currently recording with Arista Records.

Awards: Grammy awards, 1978, for “One O’Clock Jump,” and 1988, for “String of Pars”; named best touring band by the Academy of Country Music, 1977; nine nominations for outstanding work from the Country Music Association, 1973-89.

Addresses: Record company —Arista Records, 6 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019.

Odd as it may sound, Asleep at the Wheel had its origins in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where founding member Ray Benson grew up. Benson left Philadelphia in 1970, at the age of seventeen, with two pals, Chris O’Connell and Lucky Oceans. While performing in West Virginia, Oceans coined the name Asleep at the Wheel—a brainstorm he received in an outhouse near Paw Paw. After playing several months in West Virginia, the group moved to Marin County, California, where they signed with United Artists. Their first album, Comin’ Right at Ya, was released in 1973.

Benson told the Lexington Herald-Leader that he had strong convictions about the kind of music he wanted to make professionally. “I wanted to return to the roots of American country music,” he said. “I wanted to reinterpret country music. In 1969, country music entertainers and musicians were ashamed of their hillbilly and bluesy roots. They were watering down country music and making it like pop and middle-of-the-road music. This disturbed me. They called it ‘countrypolitan,’ and I didn’t like it.”

Benson and his associates began to re-create the style and sound of traditional western swing at a time when it seemed distinctly out of vogue. In down beat magazine Dave Helland wrote: “AATW has been the prime, if not sole, musical example of the juncture of hillbilly and dixieland music; a juncture which took place just about 50 miles east of the ‘x’ in Texas, and came to be known as western or Texas swing, with Bob Wills as its bandleader exemplar…. What the audience gets is a brew of country-swing instrumentation (fiddle, steel guitar, as well as saxophone); big band jazz standards, and cowboy songs. The albums as well as the gigs mix hoedowns and big band swing, reels, fox trots, and blues.”

To quote Hurst, Asleep at the Wheel gradually evolved into a “seven-piece aggregation of hot-time crowd-pleasers. “The group performed an average of 250 live concerts per year for more than a decade, traveling literally millions of miles on a series of custom-made buses. Mainstream success may have eluded them, but the musicians found enthusiastic crowds wherever they played, especially in their home base of Austin, Texas. Benson—who is the only original member still associated with the group—surrounded himself with a cadre of talented sidemen (and women), who played everything from steel guitar and fiddle to saxophone, trumpet, and accordion. All told, more than seventy-five people have played with Asleep at the Wheel over its twenty-year run.

The band has always been a favorite with music critics. Two singles, “One O’Clock Jump” and “String of Pars” have won Grammy Awards, and the Academy of Country Music named the group best touring band of 1977. Still, before 1990 Asleep at the Wheel had never earned a gold album. Benson told down beat that his act works best in live appearances with a crowd that wants to dance. “Country-western, big band jazz; both those titles will fit us,” he said, “but we’re definitely a dance band. We’re happiest in a dance setting. And in a dance setting it makes a lot more sense musically. We bebop around so many different styles that are really not very consistent musically except that they are connected by the fact that people dance to them…. We don’t make set lists or nothing. We do an opening four numbers, assess situations, and then do whatever is called for…. If we’re not an opening act, we regularly play as long as two or three hours straight.”

Although a 1988 album, Western Standard Time, sold some 100, 000 copies and earned the group its second Grammy, CBS Records released the band in 1989. Undaunted, Benson took his act to the Arista label, a newcomer to Nashville circles. There he worked out a deal for an album that would be classic Asleep at the Wheel, but more “radio-friendly” than previous works. The result was Keepin’ Me Up Nights, a release Hurst called “a highly entertaining collection that, in contrast with so many other Nashville albums, is strongly uptempo and unabashedly joyous.”

Keepin’ Me Up Nights proved not only radio-friendly, but video-friendly as well; videos have gained Asleep at the Wheel a number of new fans. The band has been able to confirm its message on a bumper sticker handed out at concerts—“Western Swing Ain’t Dead, It’s Asleep at the Wheel.”

The hectic touring schedule continues, though Asleep at the Wheel now has the extra media coverage that keeps bands in business. Benson credits his group’s success to the new interest in traditional American music. “Who knows what country music is supposed to sound like anymore,” he told the Lexington Herald-Leader. “I describe what we do as roots music. That’s what I always wanted to play to begin with. I experiment with things all the time, but after a few years you start to realize what you do best, and you just say, ‘Golly, this fits me.’”