9 Grammy Awards since 1970

Fronted by Head Honcho and Band Leader Ray Benson is joined by band mates Jason Roberts, David Sanger, David Miller, John Michael Whitby, Eddie Rivers and Elizabeth McQueen. Asleep at the Wheel is a country/Western swing band formed in Paw Paw, West Virginia, but based in Austin, Texas. Altogether, they have won nine Grammy Awards since their 1970 inception. In their career, 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.

The group’s been around for nearly 40 years, turning out an incredible 25+ albums while playing an unrelenting schedule of one-nighters that would make a vaudevillian dizzy. In 1999, Ride With Bob is released by Dreamworks and includes guest performances by the Dixie Chicks, Dwight Yoakam, Willie Nelson, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Manhattan Transfer and others.

The ensuing long form documentary The Making of Ride with Bob directed by Dan Karlok, earns a regional Emmy Award. The album wins two Grammy Awards, including one for best package design.

These days, the reinvented Wheel is also rolling down a couple of new avenues. One involves to the critically acclaimed musical play, A Ride With Bob, which stars Benson as himself — encountering the ghost of Bob Wills on a tour bus – Roberts as the young Wills, and McQueen as Minnie Pearl and other famed entertainment figures, with the rest of the band members featured as well. Originally designed as a one-off celebration of Wills’ 100th birthday in ’05, A Ride With Bob quickly took on a life of its own and, notes Benson, “it’s absolutely a part of what we do now.” Another success has been the adaptation of the Wheel’s repertoire for pops symphony. Performances with Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth & Amarillo symphonies have drawn record crowds.

REFERENCE | asleepatthewheel.com | Event Promotion | Wikipedia