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Asleep at the Wheel

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Asleep at the Wheel


Booking Asleep at the Wheel

To book Asleep at the Wheel or another Country music artist for your private party, corporate event, fundraiser or other function, please fill out our Booking Agent Entertainment Request Form to quickly connect with one of our Booking Agents.

We will work with you to produce a memorable event. Get started now by filling out our no-obligation Booking Agent Entertainment Request Form and we will work with you to book Asleep at the Wheel or another Adult Contemporary artist for your event.

Asleep at the Wheel’s Biography

Asleep at the Wheel, the famed western-swing, boogie, and roots-music outfit that’s, amazingly, still on the upswing. That’s saying something, too, considering the group’s been around for nearly 40 years, turning out an incredible 25+ albums while playing an unrelenting schedule of one-nighters that would make a vaudevillian dizzy.

These days, the reinvented Wheel is also rolling down a couple of new avenues. One involves to the critically acclaimed musical play, A Ride With Bob, which stars Benson as himself — encountering the ghost of Bob Wills on a tour bus _ Roberts as the young Wills, and McQueen as Minnie Pearl and other famed entertainment figures, with the rest of the band members featured as well. Originally designed as a one-off celebration of Wills’ 100th birthday in ’05, A Ride With Bob quickly took on a life of its own and, notes Benson, it’s absolutely a part of what we do now. Another success has been the adaptation of the Wheel’s repertoire for pops symphony. Performances with Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth & Amarillo symphonies have drawn record crowds.

The Wheel’s new look is also spotlighted in several new discs _ the first called, appropriately enough, Reinventing the Wheel. The 12-cut celebration of American _ particularly Southwestern _ music features guest appearances by gospel’s Blind Boys of Alabama (with a splendid reworking of the old Wills tune The Devil Ain’t Lazy ) and banjoist Rolf Sieker, along with lead vocals by McQueen and Roberts as well as Benson, whose voice has been synonymous with Asleep at the Wheel for decades.

The second is 2009′s Willie and the Wheel; a collaboration with Willie Nelson that was originally envisioned by famed producer Jerry Wexler in the 1970s. Unfortunately before they had a chance to cut it, Nelson had left Atlantic Records. But over the ensuing decades Wexler kept the idea alive and even gave Ray his entire collection of western swing vinyl that included his notes on song choices and treatments. In late 2007 the idea was revived and Jerry and Ray reconnected by phone. Always the producer with a vision, Jerry was involved in every way. He insisted that some of the tracks should include horns as well as a return to traditional fiddles and lap steel guitar associated with western swing. As the sessions concluded and Willie finished his vocals the tracks were sent to Jerry. To my delight and relief, says Ray, he loved them. In fact, Wexler heard most of the finished tracks prior to his passing in August 2008. ‘Jerry wanted us to do this album and I’m glad we got to do it for him, says Willie Nelson. And that he heard it before he passed on.’

The success of the Willie and the Wheel album release was quickly followed up by a tour and even a taping of the 35th anniversary of Austin City Limits for PBS (for broadcast in Fall of 2009).

And now in contemplating the 40th anniversary of Asleep at the Wheel in 2010, Ray remains focused on the original concept. I carried the load for many, many years, but I’ve always just wanted to have a band, as opposed to Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel, Benson explains.

So, whether your next encounter with Asleep at the Wheel is at a dance or concert, or backing up Willie Nelson via the new disc, or at a live production of A Ride with Bob, you’ll be witnessing something very special — a band that’s not only been entertaining audiences with its own genre-busting music for four decades, but also a group that’s never been afraid to try something new — including a reinvention, inspired by the past, that rolls joyously toward a long and shining future.

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