Asleep at the Wheel

Can a wheel reinvent itself while it’s still rolling? Sounds like an impossible task -- but you never want to say “impossible” to Asleep at the Wheel, the famed nine-time Grammy® Award-winning western-swing, boogie, and roots-music outfit that’s, amazingly, still on the upswing. That’s saying something, too, considering the group’s been around for more than 37 years, turning out an incredible three dozen albums while playing an unrelenting schedule of one-nighters that would make a vaudevillian dizzy. “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, but we grossed a lot – ‘06 was absolutely our best year ever,” says Wheel founder and front man Ray Benson with a chuckle.

Based in Austin, Texas, they have released more than twenty studio albums and have charted more than twenty singles on the Billboard country charts. Their highest-charting single, "The Letter That Johnny Walker Read", peaked at #10 in 1975. In February 2009, “Willie and the Wheel” was released which was collaboration between the late Jerry Wexler, Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel.