Western swing is a music genre that doesn’t account for millions of record sales, yet its contribution to the canon of Americana can’t be denied.
It is celebrated by diehard fans and pockets of bands around the country eking out a living, which has been working for Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel for four decades.
Asleep at the Wheel will return to the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College on Sunday. It has become a favorite stop in Colorado for the band, and the dance floor – normally the orchestra pit – will be open.
In addition to founding member, guitar player and vocalist Benson, Asleep at the Wheel is Dave Miller on bass, Jason Roberts on fiddle and vocals, Dan Walton on piano, Eddie Rivers on pedal steel, Dave Sanger on drums and Elizabeth McQueen on acoustic guitar and vocals.
The liner notes on the band’s last record refer to their sound as “jazz with a cowboy hat.” Western swing is dance music, but it’s far from the orchestrated and difficult-to-stomach line dancing you may encounter in bars and venues where cowboy hats and pressed jeans are the wardrobe of choice, Western swing is closer kin to Eisenhower-era jazz than country music, be it country music of the outlaw flavor or the god-awful pop country you’ll find coming out of modern-day country radio.
“It was music that was based in Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado and through the West,” Benson said from Asleep at the Wheel headquarters in Austin, Texas. “It was dance music at that time, in the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s. Dance music of that era was swing music, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller. Well, these were fiddlers and guitar players, not trombone and saxophone players. They loved the same music, so they said, ‘We’ll do it with stringed instruments and cowboy hats.’
“That’s what it is. It was big band music and jazz and blues music but done through the filter,” he said. “Instead of using horns, they were using fiddles, guitars and steel guitars; that’s where the cowboy hats and all that came in.”
Benson’s career and choice in performing this kind of music has taken him around the world, won him and his band multiple Grammys and placed him on theater stages performing in Bob Wills tribute musicals called “A Ride with Bob.” It also has earned him the 2011 Texan of the Year Award and allowed him to make records like “Willie and the Wheel” with Willie Nelson.
He even had to postpone our first interview opportunity because he was entertaining his friend and colleague Huey Lewis. Yes, that Huey Lewis, who could be as far removed from Western Swing as Fyodor Dostoyevsky; their influence and fan base is huge.
But there’s really no secret to the longevity of a Grammy-winning swing band entering its 43rd year of playing.
“When you’re 19 years old, you think you’re going to be dead when you’re 30. I never envisioned this longevity,” Benson said. “The secret is, don’t give up. Don’t give up, and carry on because it’s been just great.”
Liggett_b@fortlewis.edu. Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager.
Bryant’s Best
Saturday: Funky Bonz, 9 p.m., no cover, Moe’s, 937 Main Ave.. 259-9018.
Sunday: Asleep at the Wheel will play Western swing music, 7:30 p.m., $24/$34, Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College, 247-7657, www.durangoconcerts.org.
