ACL24 - Ray Benson of Asleep At The Wheel - video Dailymotion

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Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel sits down with Eric Raines after opening up this year's Austin City Limits Music Festival.

Transcript

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.

ACL24 - Ray Benson of Asleep At The Wheel

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