* Asleep at the Wheel (at Bull Run Restaurant)

Their newest album "Still The King" celebrates the music of their biggest influence, Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys. This album marks the band's third full-length Bob Wills tribute album following 1998's Ride with Bob and 1993's A Tribute to the Music of Bob Wills, with four GRAMMY awards and over half a million copies sold collectively. The new album features genre-spanning collaborations with critically acclaimed artists, old friends and new favourites including Willie Nelson, Brad Paisley, Jamey Johnson, Merle Haggard, George Strait, The Avett Brothers, Amos Lee, Old Crow Medicine Show and Lyle Lovett.

Asleep at the Wheel, the famed western-swing, boogie, and roots-music outfit are, 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 and charted more than 20 singles on the Billboard country charts, while playing an unrelenting schedule of one-nighters that would make a vaudevillian dizzy. In 1971, the band signed their first record deal after Van Morrison mentioned they "play great country music" in an interview in Rolling Stone

“In terms of how many people we played for, what we accomplished, and how much money we made – well, we didn’t make any money – this year was absolutely our best year ever,” says Wheel founder and front man Ray Benson with a chuckle.

And even as the Wheel rolled on, the reinvention had begun. You could see and hear it in their live shows, where new vocalist Elizabeth McQueen invited comparison with the classic female vocalists of the band’s earlier era, and fiddler-singer Jason Roberts gave the band a second male lead voice to complement Benson’s immediately identifiable baritone.
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. 

Over the last 42 years, Asleep at the Wheel has boldly defied the fickle lures of the mainstream and thrived by sticking to their cause of keeping Western Swing alive and kicking. For their efforts, theyve earned nine Grammy awards.

“Clever lyrics, speed-demon picking, and lightness of spirit characterize great Western Swing, and Asleep at the Wheel – a phenomenon since the ‘70s - is one of America’s most gifted purveyors of the genre.“ - Chelsea Now

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