Asleep At The Wheel - Still the King - Celebrating the Music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys

Asleep At the Wheel
Still the King: Celebrating the Music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys

128 kbps, Joint Stereo (sounds ok though)
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Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel always made known their appreciation for the Western swing of Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys. They often covered Wills’ tunes, including the 1999 album Ride with Bob, and often featured former Texas Playboy Leon Rausch. Sixteen years later, Still the King features Rausch on several tracks while also inviting other hardcore Wills fans—Merle Haggard, George Strait, and Lyle Lovett—alongside newer faces like Jamey Johnson, Brad Paisley, Carrie Rodriguez, The Avett Brothers, and Old Crow Medicine Show. It’s one generous flow of great songs with a backing band who’ve lived and breathed this music for decades.

Review
"I think the so-called Western Swing will slack off for a little while, then I think one of these boys will come out here one of these days with a golden voice and it will build again," the voice of Bob Wills says in the opening of "Still the King."

The rollicking blend of jazz and country-western sounds that the "King of Western Swing" led with his Texas Playboys might not be topping the modern charts, but Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel have ensured the American art form has stayed relevant, intact and vibrant since Wills' death in 1975. Now, for the third time in its career, the group recruited a who's who of contemporary stars (including the Avett Brothers on a marching "The Girl I Left Behind") legends (Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson and George Strait each step to the microphone) and original Playboys Leon Rausch and Billy Briggs to pay tribute to Wills in a 22-track album that swings, sways and hollers across the Lone Star sky. --Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Still the King is Alseep at the Wheel s third and latest tribute album dedicated to the music of the legendary, late Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. Every track features one of a range of Americana musicians, including Pokey LaFarge, Lyle Lovett,Willie Nelson, Old Crow Medicine Showand The Devil Makes Three, among others.

I reached out to every great singer we knew. I just kept asking folks who I felt would fit in. I was looking for the roots of American music, said Asleep at the Wheel frontman Ray Benson.

Still the King began production when Benson s son and co-producer Sam Seifert pointed out that over 15 years had passed since Asleep at the Wheel s last tribute to the music of Bob Wills, enough time for interest to renew and fresh talent to emerge. What followed was a two-year quest to track down the right songs and the collaborators to play them.

Our no list was pretty awesome, Seifert laughed when asked about the process of contacting musicians for Still the King. That being said, we really got the majority of who we wanted. We would kind of get artists in batches, it was very laborious...We were working all throughout and to the end.

The process may have been laborious at times, but the finished product displays a fine balance between the nostalgic and the new; artists in their twenties play alongside those who have been onstage for decades. Benson saw the album as an opportunity to include some younger musicians and to bring Wills work to new generations. The result is an album that should please both western swing neophytes and lifelong listeners. Asleep at the Wheel has drawn from a diverse pool of talent in their commemoration of the king of western swing, and there s not a disappointing track out of the 22 compositions included.

The album opens with Texas Playboy Theme, featuring original Texas Playboy member Leon Rausch. Saxophonist Billy Briggs, now over 90, also makes an appearance during Twin Guitar Special. The first half of Still the King showcases the voices of Lyle Lovett and Amos Lee before moving into Old Crow Medicine Show s rapid fiddling in their rendition of Tiger Rag. Elizabeth Cook s hazy vocals on I Had Someone Else Before I Had You, and My Window Faces the South with Brad Paisley also stand out for their toe-tapping enthusiasm.

Besides fulfilling its role as a tribute to his music, Still the King recognizes Bob Wills importance in country-western history. It s not meant to be commercial music, commented Seifert on the background of the songs selected for the album. It s Texas music; it grew from Texas. It was made for the dances. As Wills performances grew in popularity, he and the Texas Playboys began to drive from dance hall to dance hall, becoming some of the first American musicians to use a tour bus, and early adopters of electric instruments.

Despite the passage of eight decades since many of the songs were written, they still sound fresh and should find a willing audience in 2015. When asked about the future of western swing, Ray Benson was hopeful. It celebrates a genre that he believes is always going to be part of the tapestry of American music. He added, That s the great thing about Bob Wills ... His music has appeal to people of every generation.

Sam Seifert echoed these sentiments and concluded that his ambition for Still the Kingis mainly just that listeners enjoy it. He said, Really, for me, I want people to have a feeling of joy and happiness that makes them tap their feet and draws awareness to Bob Wills and his music. --Elmore Magazine

In a tiny town called Paw Paw, West Virginia in 1970, a Philadelphia native named Ray Benson co-founded (along with Lucky Oceans) the country b andAsleep at the Wheel. It s a good thing Benson was a teenager at the time, because 45 years later, he s still fronting the legendary group, which has become known as the standard bearers for a musical style known as Western swing.

The band, with its current line-up of Benson (vocals and guitar), David Sanger (drums), David Earl Miller (bass and vocals), Eddie Rivers (steel guitar and saxophone), Katie Holmes (fiddle and vocals), and Emily Gimble (keyboards and vocals), plays Philadelphia s World Café Livetonight at 8:00 p.m. Tickets for the all-ages show are $38.50. The show comes the day before the official release of the band s latest album, Still The King: Celebrating the Music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys on Bismeaux Records. This album, which marks the band s third full-length Bob Wills tribute album following 1999 s Ride with Bob and 1993 s A Tribute to the Music of Bob Wills, is currently streaming in full exclusively at PasteMagazine.com.

Still The King is a 22-song collection featuring genre-spanning collaborations with a wide range of critically acclaimed artists including Willie Nelson, Brad Paisley, Jamey Johnson, Merle Haggard, George Strait, The Avett Brothers, Amos Lee, Old Crow Medicine Show, Lyle Lovett, Kat Edmonson, Robert Earl Keen, Tommy Emmanuel, and many others.

"The idea was to get people who were contemporary artists to play the Bob Wills music the way that we play it, which is close to the original, Benson said in a press release for the album. We don't resurrect it, we play close to it, with our own inspiration.

Widely considered The King of Western Swing, Bob Wills (1905-1975) and his Texas Playboys recorded prolifically in the late 30s and early 40s and performed thousands of shows across the United Sates for nearly six decades. Early stars of American country music, Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys were a dance band with a country string section that played pop songs as if they were jazz numbers.

After 45 years of traveling and playing, it still amazes me how well this music, born in the 1920s and 30s, thrives in the present day, says Benson. The artists playing and singing on this collection range in age from folks in their 20s to former Texas Playboys 92-year-old Billy Briggs and 86-year-old Leon Rausch... certain evidence that Western swing music is alive and well as it cruises through the next millennium.

Bob Wills was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1968, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 and the National Fiddler Hall of Fame in 2007.

Since its inception, Asleep at the Wheel has won nine Grammy awards, released more than 20 studio albums, and charted more than 20 singles on the Billboard country charts. In 1972, the band signed their first record deal after Van Morrison mentioned they play great country music in an interview in Rolling Stone. Their debut record, Comin Right At Ya, was released in 1973. The release of Texas Gold in 1975 brought the band national recognition, with the single The Letter That Johnny Walker Read becoming a top-ten country hit. The band has been awarded Touring Band of the Year (CMAs, 1976) and the Lifetime Achievement in Performance (Americana Music Awards 2009). In 2010, they earned a GRAMMY nomination in the newly minted Best Americana Album category for their critically acclaimed release, Willie & The Wheel. --The Examiner

‘Still The King: Celebrating the Music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys’ tracklist:
1. Intro—Texas Playboy Theme (with Leon Rausch)
2. I Hear Ya Talkin’ (with Amos Lee)
3. The Girl I Left Behind (with The Avett Brothers)
4. Trouble In Mind (with Lyle Lovett)
5. Keeper Of My Heart (with Merle Haggard and Emily Gimble)
6. I Can’t Give You Anything But Love (with Kat Edmonson)
7. Tiger Rag (with Old Crow Medicine Show)
8. What’s The Matter With The Mill (with Pokey LaFarge)
9. Navajo Trail (with Willie Nelson and The Quebe Sisters)
10. Silver Dew On The Bluegrass Tonight (with The Del McCoury Band)
11. Faded Love (with The Time Jumpers)
12. South Of The Border (Down Mexico Way) (with George Strait)
13. I Had Someone Else Before I Had You (with Elizabeth Cook)
14. My Window Faces The South (with Brad Paisley)
15. Time Changes Everything (with Buddy Miller)
16. A Good Man Is Hard To Fine (with Carrie Rodriguez and Emily Gimble)
17. Ding Dong Daddy From Dumas (with Robert Earl Keen and Ray Benson)
18. Brain Cloudy Blues (with Jamey Johnson and Ray Benson)
19. Bubbles In My Beer (with The Devil Makes Three)
20. It’s All Your Fault (with Katie Shore)
21. Three Guitar Special (with Tommy Emmanuel, Brent Mason and Billy Briggs)
22. Bob Wills Is Still The King (with Shooter Jennings, Randy Rogers and Reckless Kelly)

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