Western swing for the ages

Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel have earned nine Grammys

By Tom Geddie

Ray Benson is forever tied to one of the all-time-great cover bands, Asleep at the Wheel. It’s both inevitable and right because the band has won nine Grammy awards and, more important and more than anyone else, kept that bit of Americana in the public ear and helped revive that most danceable and most infectiously joyous sound.

Doing 150 or so gigs every year after year, the collective Asleep at the Wheel earns each of its accolades. The latest collection is this year’s Willie & The Wheel, a collaboration with Willie Nelson from Benson’s own Bismeaux Records that quickly climbed to the top of the Americana Music Association’s chart.

On a western swing collection that probably was as much fun to record as it is to listen to, Nelson plays the Tommy Duncan vocalist role and Benson plays the Bob Wills bandleader role. Nelson’s longevity is remarkable, although he may sound just a bit short-winded on some of the upbeat songs from time to time.

Benson’s Dixieland proclivities come through clearly on several of this CD’s songs including “Hesitation Blues” and Nelson’s duet with Elizabeth McQueen on “I’m Sittin’ on Top of the World,” the former a feel-good number with steel guitar and a horn solo and the latter slowed down so that it’s almost feels like a New Orleans funeral song on the way to the cemetery.

The dozen songs also include versions of “Sweet Jennie Lee,” “Oh! You Pretty Woman,” “Right or Wrong,” “Corrine Corrina,” “Won’t You Ride in My Little Red Wagon,” etc.

Music and the man

It was difficult — almost impossible — to separate Benson, both the musician and the person, from Asleep at the Wheel until the 2001 Pedernales release Poet: A Tribute to Townes Van Zandt, where 13 music legends and a couple of other deserving folks did 15 of Van Zandt’s songs. In the midst of interpretations by Guy Clark, Nanci Griffith, Cowboy Junkies, Emmylou Harris, John Prine, Lucinda Williams, and the others was this delicate, moving version of the sensitive, vulnerable “If I Needed You” that just, frankly, blew me away.

It was Benson, showing a side of himself that was so different from the Bob Wills-inspired western swing we’d heard for so long.

“It’s a funny deal. We are a cover band,” he said, laughing, “in one sense of the word. We cover a dead guy. We also reinterpret.

“I’m 58. I grew up with rock ’n’ roll, folk, jazz, etc, and Asleep at the Wheel began as a roots American band. The western swing kinda took over. I didn’t mind being painted into this corner, but I try to explain to people that I can do all kinds of stuff if I want to,” said the long-time (and long, tall) Texan who was born Ray Benson Seifert in Philadelphia.

“If I Needed You’ was really cool. I met Townes when I was 16. Townes had come up to Philadelphia to play in a club. I was hanging out and met him, and thought he was incredible.”

Benson said he was “jazzed” to do the Van Zandt tribute album.

“Nobody wanted to do that song because it was his most commercially famous,” he said. “Everybody wanted to do the obscure, down stuff. I just made it into a lullaby. I was going through a divorce at the time, and it was a very emotional the song with what I was going through.”

On such an excellent collection, Benson’s sparse interpretation was one of the for-sure highlights.

“I’ve been accused of kitchensink production with Asleep at the Wheel, but I understand the beauty of simplicity,” he said.

So, who is Ray Benson?

A conundrum wrapped in a riddle, as he suggested?

Moves to Texas

“I don’t know,” he said. “I try to explain to people. I was born in Philadelphia. I’m Jewish. I’m six-foot-seven; the latter two never seem to coincide and Kinky Friedman calls me the world’s tallest living Jew. I grew up in a time when radio was incredible. I listened to everything. I started performing at nine years old with my sister in a trio. I sang all the folk stuff and played tuba in marching band and loved jazz growing up.

“I loved performing, so that’s what I did. And do.”

In 1969, he realized the connections in American music including rockabilly, swing, western swing, honky-tonk, country blues, and more.

“These forms had kinda disappeared from the pop music world. I wanted to do that, to be a country western band.”

The Wheel

 In 1970, he created Asleep at the Wheel with buddies Lucky Oceans and Leroy Preston and moved to West Virginia.

“We were hippies but we loved roots music,” he said. “We were lucky we weren’t pacifists because had to fight our way out of bars in West Virginia. I believed in pacifism but didn’t want to get my head busted. There was that great divide between longhairs and rednecks, and one of our goals was to bridge this gap both ways.”

Benson and his friends met Nelson and Doug Sahm in California,  along with Commander Cody and Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks and Van Morrison, who mentioned Asleep at the Wheel in a Rolling Stone interview.

“We were playing George Jones and Porter Waggoner and Bob Wills and some obscure guys from my collection of 78 rpm records. We did our research. I saw Son House, who was just incredible.

And the Reverend Gary Davis, and the Kings — B.B. and Freddie — and all this great music. We wanted to wear cowboy hats and play country-and-western music. That’s what I was, and still am.”

In 1973, at Nelson’s suggestion, he moved to Austin where he’s lived ever since.

“There’s something special about Austin that has to do with creativity,” he said.

Today, the bandleader-producer- entrepreneur-public servant mixes “a few dozen” solo shows into the busy Asleep at the Wheel schedule which includes the “Ride with Bob” stage production.

He’s been involved with various charities including the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, the Sims Foundation, and the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians (HAAM) among others. The R&B group raised more than $3 million to financially support artists from the 1930s-1960s who were often cheated out of fair shares for their work.

“Mostly my biggest achievement is HAAM,” he said. “We provide medical and dental and physical and mental services for musicians making less than $35,000 a year.

And there’s the St. David’s Community Health Foundation that covers three counties for indigent healthcare — for health grants in Central Texas. That’s so important.”

Supporting other musicians is important to Benson.

“Life without music would be like nature without birds,” he said.

“Those of us who listen to the soundtrack of the natural world realize that the natural world is filled with music. All we are doing is adding human music. We are fortunate. Without music, the world would be so colorless.”

A man of the arts

Benson is a fan of most kinds of art and is a member of the statewide Texas Cultural Trust.

“I love literature. I love words. I’m not much of a writer, but I wrote poetry for many years until I realized nobody read it any more,” he said, laughing. “I love the visual arts, theater, painting, and sculpture. I love great dance — ballet is okay — and good photography. Whatever medium you use, you adjust it for your vision; adjust the craft of it to fit your vision. I love jazz, which stands up with the great music of all time.”

Benson attributes much of his success to persistence.

“My mom always told me I was the most determined person I ever met. They worried about me going into show business, but they knew I’d push so hard. It’s kinda like being a boxer — you’re going to take a lot of shots. You have to deal with the realities of show business that can beat you down. It’s got nothing to do with why you are there or how good you are; the reward has to be the fact that you’re playing.

“When I get frustrated driving 560 miles and pulling into a hotel that didn’t have rooms ready and it is so funky that I don’t want to lay on the bed — how many years can you do that? A friend told me to just enjoy every note.” 

©2009 Buddy Magazine/Tom Geddie

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