ACL Fest 2024 - Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel
Eric Raines caught up with Ray Benson on the opening day of the 2024 Austin City Limits Music Festival.
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00:00Austin, 75, nine, Texas country.
00:07The great Ray Benson, man.
00:10How many of these have you done?
00:11How many is this for you?
00:1224.
00:13Well, actually we missed one because of weather and scheduling, but 24, 24 years.
00:21And I was thinking about it on my way over here.
00:22I mean, Austin city limits, you were part of getting the actual Austin city limits TV
00:26show.
00:27Some of the pilots, those early.
00:28I mean, you're, you're good.
00:29Yeah.
00:30That was the first, uh, first scheduled one.
00:31Willie did the pirate pilot, which, and as a matter of fact, next, uh, in a couple of
00:35weeks, it'll be 50 years since Willie taped the pilot and we're going to tape a TV show.
00:41Another Austin city limits with him.
00:44So you've been a part of that, been a part of the board, bringing people in and being
00:47a part of Austin city limits music festival all those years.
00:50It's got to bring you joy to see how big this thing has gotten.
00:53It's a, it's pretty spitty.
00:54Amazing.
00:55I was sitting on a bus and I'm looking at these young girls walking in that weren't
00:58born when we did the first one.
01:02Last time we hung out was on a bus.
01:04We were in New Mexico in the back of the bus, watching Texas, Alabama about a year ago.
01:08Yes.
01:09Pretty close today.
01:10And we weren't doing anything illegal.
01:11No, no, no.
01:12In New Mexico.
01:13No, it was legal there.
01:14Right.
01:15Yeah.
01:16But you were talking about, and you let me hear some demos of a brand new album that
01:17you were working on.
01:18And here it is.
01:19Talk about it right quick.
01:20Well, it's called swinging and skanking.
01:21The skanking is a Jamaican term for swinging, swinging and skanking, swinging and swinging.
01:27And that fellow heard me sing and said, let's, let's make a record in Jamaica with these
01:30legendary fellows.
01:32Sly Dunbar is one of the most legendary drummers in the world.
01:37Right.
01:38Sly and Robbie, you know about them, of course, played on all of the great hits with the stones
01:41and Dylan and a thousand other records.
01:45And me and Tony Garnier, Bob Dylan's longtime bass player, went down there and did this
01:50with us, a ska reggae crew of guys, my age, wonderful guys.
01:55And then we came back to Texas and sang it and fixed it and did some more stuff.
01:59And it's we and then we did it on the road again, Willie Nelson song.
02:05And Willie played guitar on it.
02:07And pretty cool.
02:10It's pretty cool.
02:11I can't wait to hear.
02:12I heard some of the demos, but they weren't finished yet.
02:13And you're like, all right, I can send them to you yet.
02:14But here we go.
02:15They're done.
02:16Yeah.
02:17And there's some stuff for everybody.
02:18It's not hardcore reggae by any stretch of imagination.
02:20Did you have to learn that drop reggae beat?
02:23Oh, I knew it.
02:24You know, I had produced Toots and the Maytals with Willie Nelson once on a one one record.
02:29And I've been going to Jamaica for 50 years, 40 years, more 45 years.
02:34I've started in 1980 and I just love the music.
02:38Love it.
02:39It's and the musicians, these guys are stellar.
02:43So with the will be we are going to do you going to do some of this out with Ray?
02:46We shall see.
02:47Well, I want to get Sly and the other guys to do a show because these guys are legendary.
02:55As far as the as far as the wheel continuing to play out there, how many years are we on
02:58it now?
02:59I mean, it was an anniversary.
03:00Four years.
03:01Four years.
03:02Public since 70.
03:03Wow.
03:04And but of course, what's very cool is our newest member, Ian Stewart, plays fiddle and
03:09sings.
03:10And he grew up literally down the road from me outside just outside Austin.
03:16And he started he was playing as a lot of kids in the orchestras.
03:23And then got interested in honky tonk and got started playing around South Austin, learning
03:28the trade.
03:29And we got together and boy, he is killing right now.
03:32So we're going to do another album, me and him being the singers, you know, because the
03:37Siemens wheel has always had multiple singers, right?
03:40Part of our problem and part of our plus, you know, they go, which one is it?
03:45But I don't care because we love it.
03:47You know, I had great singers.
03:49And so anyway, it continues on.
03:52Yes.
03:53We're going to do we'll be doing another album and I'm producing an album on Joshua Hedley
03:57from Nashville.
03:58Great.
03:59Oh, yeah.
04:00Yeah.
04:01I'm doing an album with him in November.
04:02It's a new studio at the farm.
04:05When is the new studio?
04:06All right.
04:07I miss you being two blocks from here, man.
04:09I used to love I tell everybody some of the greatest moments that I have were driving
04:12by.
04:13I mean, you were talking to Merle Haggard on the phone about something that he was recording
04:17down the line.
04:18And I was just, you know, a fly on the wall.
04:20I miss you being in town, but I would love.
04:22Yeah.
04:23But that new studio at the farm and it's just been great.
04:27We opened two months ago and did some voiceover and now we're going to start recording.
04:31Yeah.
04:32I can't wait.
04:33Thank you for doing this, man.
04:34I got to see you play today.
04:37It's always great to come out to ACL Festival and hear the wheel and some twin fiddles up
04:41there and and sing Happy Trails with the rest of the gang.
04:44So that was that was snuck in because we were we'd really have enough time to do it.
04:47I said, oh, let's just do one verse.
04:49I sang with you.
04:51Congrats on the new radio.
04:54Good.
04:55Austin City Limits Festival continues out here at Crane's Live with Austin's 95.9 Texas
04:59Country.