Asleep at the Wheel celebrates five decades in Texas with treasure trove of timeless tunes

Back in March, the Texas Standard was taking bets on our own March Music Madness bracket and the theme was the best song about Texas. Making it to the final round was a little old Grammy award-winning band now celebrating five decades playing music in the Lone Star State: Asleep at the Wheel.

Today, the wheel keeps on rolling and has come out of the gate with the first single from an all-new album, featuring ten of their favorite Texas tunes and wrapped into a package called “Riding High in Texas.”

Benson joined the Standard for an extensive conversation on the album, life on the road, and some of his favorite all-time Texas tunes. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.

This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:

Ray Benson: I’ve been talking about doing this for about 30 years and then finally the I said “well come on, we’re a Texas band. That’s what we’re known as. Let’s do a Texas song.”

And we didn’t want to do just “The Eyes of Texas” and all your standard stuff, so let’s just pick. So the the criteria was “does it have the word ‘Texas’ in it?”

Texas Standard: Before we get a little taste of the first single, Brother Ray, I got to ask you straight: the ten best Texas songs. You steal this idea from us?

Absolutely. Of course!

No, I know you didn’t.

You got some tested crowd pleasers on this: “T for Texas,” “All My Exes”… Your list, though, is more eclectic than our list. How’d you narrow down that canon of Texas songs?

You jokingly said that you were looking for anything with “Texas” in the title, but there’s some here without “Texas”in title. “Beaumont Rag” is one of my favorites on this.

Right, well, yeah, for instance, “Beaumont Rag”… I have to explain that “Beaumont Rag” was actually a hit for Bob Wills, and in the fiddle world, it’s one of the standard, standard, standard fiddle tunes. And so that’s one reason why we did that. And of course, it’s about Beaumont.

But more than that, it is a song that really defies Texas fiddling, which, for those of you who don’t know it, is a subgenre of fiddle-playing, and a very popular one – one of the main ones, if not the main one.

You got a new singer now and you’re 50 years on the road and on the record with Asleep at the Wheel. How many players have passed through that entourage of yours?

Somewhere about a hundred…

Is that true? For real?

Absolutely. We have the list. And listen: first of all, it’s 55 years. Some have passed away – a number of them.

Listen: Tony Garnier – he’s been with Bob Dylan now 35 years. Larry Franklin – he’s in Nashville on everybody’s record, including the new Post Malone record. We’ve got Junior Brown. People don’t even realize junior was in Asleep.

So it’s been an incredible experience to have these incredible people.

» OUR FAVORITE MUSIC MOMENTS: Replaying 10 years of music coverage on the Standard

I’ve got my signed copy of “Willie and the Wheel” on the wall above my stereo, Ray. One of the things I know you like to do is collaborate. And I saw you’ve got some pretty amazing collaborations going on here, too. Who’s that on the title track?

The title track is a Peter Rowan song, and I called up my pal Billy Strings, who’s such a great guitar player, because that’s the kind of guitar that I’m not the best at, which I call almost bluegrass.

And who’s the best today? I think Billy Strings. So I called Billy up. I had just appeared with Billy in one of his videos, and so he’s been a great friend.

Well, he’s the hottest thing at the moment.

Ha ha ha, yeah, that’s a fact.

And you’ve got Lyle Lovett on here, too.

Yeah, Lyle Lovett. Our neighbor – you know, he lives in Austin for the most part now. And so Lyle, we did this song, “I’m a Long Tall Texan.” Well, of course I am.

And Lyle had recorded it with Randy Newman many years ago and he heard we were doing it. He said, “Hey, you want me to do the answer part?” I said, “Oh, hell yeah.”

That’s great, that’s great. You know, Ray, I had an experience as a kid where I got to meet one of my musical heroes and I asked him what’s the best song he’d recommend that someone like me probably wouldn’t know.

And he sized me up for a minute and said, “you ever heard of Vanda & Young?” I said, “no.” He said, “try ‘Friday On My Mind,’ and that was a really cool experience.

Now here I am talking with another music legend named Ray Benson, and I want to ask you a similar question: What’s the best song about Texas that most folks probably wouldn’t know, but should?

You know, of course, the one I say normally is our state song, “Texas, Our Texas.”

Yeah, you’d be surprised how many people don’t know that.

Yeah, but although I was in a show the other night, because I make a joke, you know…

But let me answer your question. Of the older variety, you know, “Beautiful Texas” written by W. Lee O’Daniel, our crooked governor… It’s a wonderful song. “Where the beautiful bluebonnets grow. I’m proud of our forefathers who fought at the Alamo.”That’s a great old one.

I would… No, see, because they all know the George Strait ones. I can’t say “Amarillo By Morning.” Earnest Tubb: “There’s a Little Bit of Everything in Texas.”

Oh, I like that. That’s a great selection.

Best song you’ve ever done, Ray. I mean, with all these years with Wheel, I mean is there one that you’re proudest of, maybe one you never get tired of playing?

That I sang or that I produced?

Well, I’ll tell you what, it sounds like you’ve got something else in mind that you didn’t sing.

Yeah, one of the greatest cuts that I ever did was a Cindy Walker song. And I know you know who Cindy is.

One of the greatest Texas songwriters ever from Mexia, Texas.

That’s right. And she wrote a song called “Goin’ Away Party,” which was her tribute to Bob Wills, actually. She wrote it, and I cut it with Asleep at the Wheel, Willie Nelson, and The Manhattan Transfer.

And it is a big production. It’s got, obviously, four singers and Willie, Asleep at the Wheel. And it’s gorgeous.

My favorite that I actually sang…

Is there one that you do on stage that’s like, I’d never get tired of this? I could play this all night.

Yeah, Guy Clark. “Dublin Blues.”

“Dublin Blues.” That’s the one in the Chili Parlor Bar, right? That’s correct. 

Yeah, right.

Every time I go in, I think of that song.

One of the greatest songs ever written and I get to sing it live and it’s very low key.

The other day I did it at DelFest, which is an outdoor bluegrass festival. It’s a very slow, very, very intense song and they quiet down and listen. It’s got that effect on people.

I feel like you’re doing a lot of looking in the rearview mirror with this one. This isn’t a best-of package, but for all the fun here, it seems like you are taking stock of the Texas you’ve traveled. What’s on your mind, Ray?

Exactly. You know, I wasn’t born here, even though in the song it says, “I’ve been a Texan since my birth.” I just say, “I’ve been a Texan since my rebirth.”

I’ve been here 53 years. You and I both know Texas is so many different things and it’s such a huge topic that I’m just proud to have been accepted as a Texas musician and as a Texas citizen.

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It means a lot to you. I know you were really proud of becoming the voice at the Alamo – and who wouldn’t be? But, you know, that’s quite an honor right there. 

Absolutely. You know, and to tell the whole story and to tell the story of Texas, to me, is the story of this incredible country that became a state of this country.

But it is so many things, the immigrant experience of everybody – from my people, to Germans, Czechs, Mexicanos, Scottish, Irish… It’s this incredible tapestry of beautiful cultures.

Ray Benson has been fronting Asleep at the Wheel since he founded in the 1970s. Courtesy photo

I know the album doesn’t come out for a few more weeks. I listened to a preview of it last night, though – put it on in the truck and when I pulled into the driveway, I pulled back out so I could get back on the road and keep listening.

This is an album that seems like it was tailor-made for road-tripping. You do that on purpose?

It’s just the way it goes, I guess, because I’m on the road all the time. I understand that thing. And so when we’re driving down the road, I know what you want because I am there all the time.

What is it about certain music that just sort of makes it just perfect for a drive?

Well, part of it is the tempo, and the other, you know, it’s just got a moving tempo that moves you.

You know, “Get Your Kicks on Route 66”: the same thing. That’s what it’s all about. You get in the car and drive. Well, you got the scenery, and you got your radio.

Nowadays, the radio is larger than life. There’s plugs, the blogosphere, there’s the satellite, there is terrestrial radio. And so you’ve got this whole soundtrack of what’s going by. It’s like a movie to me, and the movie needs a soundtrack.

As I was listening last night, I thought, “I sure hope there’s a volume two.” Would you do it?

Absolutely. It’s not like there’s a lack of them. That was our problem.

I mean we didn’t do any of the ones. We didn’t my song, “Boogie Back to Texas.” We didn’t do “Miles and Miles of Texas.” We didn’t do so many of the songs.

You know, the other day we recreated the “Red Headed Stranger” album on stage up in Garland, Texas. And of course all of those songs could be, obviously, considered “Texas.”

The first single – tell us a little bit about it. Maybe we can listen to it on the way out here.

“Got to go, I got Texas in my soul.” Willie Nelson, it’s Ernest Tubb-recorded.

Basically, it’s just a list of Texas cities. “The rest of the world ain’t worth a pound of good old Texas earth.” I mean, those are great, chauvinistic lines. We certainly wanna continue to perpetuate that.

Everything’s bigger in Texas, absolutely. We really wanna overstate the obvious.

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