The Essentials – Asleep At The Wheel  Share

In “The Essentials” series, our official blogger, singer/songwriter/journalist Mike Ethan Messick, dives into the catalog of one of the Texas Music Scene’s brightest stars or biggest legends and comes up with a handful of essential songs to recommend. Alternately he might tackle a theme, regional scene, or subgenre and list off just enough highlights and personal favorites to fill up your next mix CD.

THE ESSENTIALS – Asleep At The Wheel

1. “The Letter That Johnny Walker Read” – While best known as revivalists for classic Western swing, Ray Benson & co. also acquit themselves grandly with straight-up, timeless country music. Building a world of full-grown heartache off a simple play on words, the band added some gravitas to their good-time repertoire early on with this classic.
2. “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie” – The fact that they make it look easy doesn’t take away from the sheer musical sophistication that every incarnation of Asleep At The Wheel has been capable of; like the freight train in the title, there’s a lot of moving parts here (about a dozen instruments, subtle shifts in tempo and tone, tricky harmonies) but somehow it all stays on track.
3. “Boogie Back To Texas” – Benson might not have the mournful range of a George Jones or Merle Haggard, but he’s gifted with admirable vocal dexterity, an invaluable talent when he’s matching up rapid-fire rhymes against percolating uptempo swing. At this sort of thing, Ray’s in a class by himself, and so is this enduringly fun Texas anthem.
4. “Hot Rod Lincoln” – Having mastered Western swing and dabbled productively in honky-tonk, the Wheel has also spent a few decades tearing through this rockabilly standard with hot-pickin’ fast-talkin’ gusto, keeping an old storytelling classic close at hand for generation after generation.
5. “Hesitation Blues” – No idea why it took so long to get Willie Nelson and Asleep In The Wheel in a studio together for a full-length record, but when the opportunity arose they made the most of it. Willie’s legendary status and good-vibes charm seemed to stoke the fire for all involved; it doesn’t just swing, it outright rocks.

Rounding things out …
6. “Miles & Miles of Texas”
7. “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66”
8. “Big Balls In Cowtown” (w/George Strait)
9. “Cherokee Maiden”
10. “Texas, Me & You”
11. “Dusty Skies” (w/Riders In The Sky)
12. “The Devil Ain’t Lazy”
13. “I’m An Old Cowhand (From The Rio Grande)”
14. “House Of Blue Lights”
15. “Dance With Who Brung Ya”