Asleep at the Wheel Part II- cont. from June 30th

The band came on the stage, and with no banter, launched immediately into "Miles and Miles of Texas", one of my favorites. Ray Benson looks a lot like current country star Trace Atkins, both are tall with deep voices and long pony tails. Besides Benson on lead guitar, there was an upright bass, a steel guitar (also played the sax), a woman on guitar, drummer, and another man who played mandolin, fiddle, and guitar. They were very tight in their sound.

The second song, we boogie-woogied down the Mother Road with "Get Your Kicks on Route 66". Ray, the fiddle player, and the girl took turns singing it. This really got the crowd going. AATW 's (Asleep at the Wheel) version is, to my way of thinking, the very best of all of the seven or eight hundred versions of the song. If it doesn't get your toe to tapping, you've got a dead toe.

Then, they played "Don't Fence Me In". From their newest album, "Reinventing the Wheel", they played "I Don't Care if the Sun Don't Shine". The girl took the lead on this one. Ray still calls them albums and he talked about a new play he and the band were involved in about Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. They're still looking for someone to play the role of Bob Wills. Ray says he's too old and doesn't look like Bob so he can't play the part.

Next song was "Eliza Jane" with the fiddle player doing the Bob Wills calls. Then, Ray showed his guitar chops on the bluesy "Sittin' On Top of the World." Watch out Buddy Guy! Roy can do his licks.

Then "Take Me Back to Tulsa"-one of my favorites and, off the new album, "I'm an Old Cow Hand from the Rio Grande". AATW put a lot of songs that'd been wanting to perform on this new collection. "Your Mind is on Vacation and Your Mouth is Working Overtime" was hilarious as the title would suggest. With lines like, "If silence was golden, you couldn't raise a dime," how could it not be. At one point, Ray was singing as deep as the member of the Oak Ridge Boys on "Elvira".

To Be Continued.....

Western Swing Ain't Dead, It's AATW!!! --RoadDog