I remember watching Asleep at the Wheel’s “Hot Rod Lincoln” on CMT with my Dad, back in the Eighties. Thirty plus years later, I had the rare treat of watching this ten-time Grammy winning band perform it live at the Boulder Theater. No need to rely on big stage glam or overcompensating back-up singers, Ray Benson sounded as robust as ever! His deep voice reverberated throughout the room, perfectly complemented by the rest of the band.

Fifty 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. 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. Although the lineup has changed countless times since its inception, Benson’s mission has never wavered.

Tanya Tucker, Del McCoury Band, and Asleep at the Wheel are among the second round of lineup additions headlining the 2022 Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion music festival, which takes place Sept. 9-11 in Historic Downtown Bristol, Virginia-Tennessee. Willie Watson, Nicki Bluhm and Miko Marks are also part of the latest rollout of artists announced today.

‘Jake & Friends’ – the upcoming album from the acclaimed Hawai’i-born ‘ukulele player Jake Shimabukuro – features a who’s who of music royalty, so it’s only fitting that Shimabukuro release not one, but two new singles from the album today, with artists as diverse as Jack Johnson, Paula Fuga, and Kenny Loggins.
 

Best-known for gracing the pedal steel chair in Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen, Asleep at the Wheel, and the New Riders of the Purple Sage, Bobby Black is one of the greats at his chosen instrument and one of the last members of the first generation of players to introduce it to American music. And he is definitely the only member of that club who spent most of his life in Northern California, San Mateo to be specific.

After five decades plus a worldwide pandemic break, western swing torchbearers Asleep At The Wheel are celebrating their half-century-long career with a brand new record.

With a sneaky half-time groove and a slinky fiddle and guitar trade-off, America’s favorite Western Swing masters Asleep At The Wheel—and their very special guest, the beloved Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter Lyle Lovett—ease right into their new single, “There You Go Again.” Written just before the recording sessions for The Wheel’s new album Half A Hundred Years, “There You Go Again” is a feel-good, light-hearted jab at pretentiousness and all the silly ways it shows up in the writers’ lives, brought toget

Asleep at the Wheel is pleased to debut “Take Me Back To Tulsa,” the second single from the band’s forthcoming 50th anniversary album Half A Hundred Years exclusively via SiriusXM. Fans of the Wheel can tune into SiriusXM’s Outlaw Country (ch. 60) and Willie’s Roadhouse (ch. 59) this week (today through Aug. 27) to hear the track first before it is released to the public on Friday, Aug. 27.
 

There’s no mistaking the pride in the voice of long time Asleep at the Wheel front man, Ray Benson, when he sings “Start the jam, roll one up, and ice another beer. I’ll tip my hat and raise a toast to half a hundred years.” The revelrous, to put it lightly, refrain of “Half A Hundred Years” is the icing on the birthday cake for Benson and his band who are ringing in their 50th anniversary with a brand new album on October 1st, 2021.

NPR/West Virginia Public Broadcasting's live performance radio show Mountain Stage has announced they will present at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C.. The show will take place on Sunday, October 24th at the prestigious venue's Concert Hall and is among 120+ events celebrating The Kennedy Center's 50th Anniversary 2021-2022 Season.