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Asleep at the Wheel are the most noted of
today’s Western Swing bands. In the early 70s, Ray Benson, Leroy
Preston and Reuben ‘Lucky Oceans’ Gosfield landed in Paw Paw,
West Virginia for the summer, with their plan to form a real
live Western Swing band. They began playing a series of dates
alongside Poco and Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen.
Following a move to San Francisco, pianist Floyed Domino joined,
bringing his jazz influences into the band. The band got their
record deal when Van Morrison raved about them in the pages
of Rolling Stone. With their mixed bag of jazz, blues, rock
and country, they were an immediate hit with the same folks
who embraced Willie Nelson and the rest of the Outlaws. AATW
scored a US top ten hit with ‘The Letter That Johnny Walker
Read’ in 1973. Their first Grammy came for their version of
Count Basie’s ‘One O’Clock Jump’.
Since then, Ray Benson and Asleep At The
Wheel have been holding down their corner of the music world.
Rather than changing with the times, they continue to make only
the finest Western Swing music. With over 80 personnel changes
and many albums behind them, Reinventing The Wheel is their
latest release. Ray Benson has seen some fine musicians pass
through the band and the line-up playing on this album sees
Texas fiddler Jason Roberts (who also happens to be second cousin
to the legendary Johnny Gimble), steel guitarist Eddie Rivers,
pianists Floyd Domino and John Michael Whitby, drummer Dave
Sanger, bassist David Miller and Rolf Sieker on banjo.
Reinventing The Wheel
sets the pace as it kicks off with Fred Rose’s sensational “The
Devil Ain’t Lazy” featuring The Blind Boys of Alabama.
The Blind Boys have spread the spirit and energy of pure soul
gospel music for over 60 years, ever since the group originally
formed at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind in 1939
and still includes founding members Clarence Fountain and Jimmy
Carter.
You can’t go wrong with the twelve great
tracks that make up Reinventing The Wheel.
Wonderful titles, “Your Mind Is On Vacation”,
“I Don’t Care If The Sun Don’t Shine”,
“Am I Right (or Amarillo)” will
surely bring a smile to anyone’s face. Ray Benson certainly
gets things rocking down at the “Saturday
Night Fish Fry”, Elizabeth McQueen adds her sensational
vocals by taking lead on “I’m An Old Cowhand
(From The Rio Grande)” and joins Ray (aided and abetted
by other band members on vocals) for a bittersweet version of
Bob Wills/Tommy Duncan’s plaintive “Misery”.
Always top-notch and above the rest, AATW
are on a clear-cut winner with Reinventing
The Wheel and their creative powerhouse of western swing
music.
Graham Lees February 2007
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