The Happy Trails tour stopped in Virginia
Asleep at the Wheel boogied into Alexandria, VA on Friday (June 14th) for a toe-tapping night of Western swing. The show at Birchmere Music Hall was sold out.
Ray Benson and crew delivered a set of music that acted as a love letter to this sub-genre of country music. The night was composed of Wheel music, along with covers of several greats from the country and the West. A swing-style arrangement of Waylon Jennings’ “Bob Wills is Still the King” led to a two-song tribute of the former.
Benson—the sole original member of Asleep at the Wheel—has a voice tailor-made for this brand of music. At once rich yet light, he can convey fun and joy in one number (“Route 66”) and be pensive the next (“Faded Love”).
Fiddle player Ian Stewart played and sang on several numbers, acting as an animated co-lead, complimenting Benson’s stoic guitar picking. Ian Stewart stood out on “Milk Cow Blues,” playing the famous melody perfectly. His voice lent a fun sparkle as he sang lead on the lighthearted “Mean Woman with Green Eyes.”
The rest of the seven-piece band were incredibly tight, putting a Western swing touch on classics from across American music like “When You Wish Upon a Star” and “All My Exes Live in Texas.”
Benson has kept Asleep at the Wheel going for 54 years. Throughout the night, he mentioned his ties to the DC area. A West Virginia native—though Wheel is proudly a product of Texas—Benson spent his early years playing up and down M Street and Wisconsin Avenue in DC.
Bob Wills might be the original king of the swing sound. But no Western swing player packs them in or has packed them in as consistently, as Asleep at the Wheel. And as the “Happy Trails” name of this tour alludes, the band may pack it in and boogie back to Texas permanently. Somebody give Ray Benson his crown, and soon.
