Austin, TX · western swing

Asleep at the Wheel

1 upcoming festival

Texas western-swing institution — more than fifty years keeping Bob Wills's songbook alive with Grammy-stacked musicianship; a Zilker rite.

Asleep at the Wheel began around the turn of the 1970s in West Virginia and relocated first to California and then to Austin, where the band has been based ever since. Guitarist and singer Ray Benson has been the constant through decades of shifting line-ups, which have typically included fiddle, steel guitar and piano alongside the rhythm section. Their repertoire centres on western swing, particularly the music of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, extended with honky-tonk, jump blues and swing-era standards. The band has recorded several albums devoted to Wills's catalogue and has won multiple Grammy Awards, and their live sets place a good deal of emphasis on instrumental soloing.

western swing