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by:Â Mark Lowry
Few musicians have taken their idolization of a classic singer to the lengths that Ray Benson and his band Asleep at the Wheel have with Western swing’s most influential practitioner, Bob Wills.
The Wheel has released two tribute albums to Wills and co-wrote a musical about him, A Ride With Bob. The show had its North Texas debut in 2006 at Casa Mañana and now returns for two nights at Bass Hall. Here’s what Benson had to say about the show that was inspired by the band’s 1973 near-meeting with Wills before he went into a coma that lasted for two years.
Have there been any changes since we saw this show in 2006?
We really tightened up the second act with a brand new scene, so there’s a lot of comedy and lightheartedness, but there’s some of the more darker parts of Bob Wills, the alcoholism and all that. It really ties together better now.
You gave your fiddler, Jason Roberts, the role of Wills because he actually kind of looks like him. How has his acting changed since you’ve been doing the show?
He has pegged it now. Even Wills’ relatives who come see it, they say that’s how it was. I get to look out at the audience at lot, and I see these women in their 80s, hear them singing along and crying. Wills was like the Elvis Presley of his day.
What about younger audiences?
For the older folks, it’s memory lane. For the younger people, it gives them a frame and context to see where the music came from.
In the show, you talk about Wills being influenced by African-American singers he would hear. A lot of current country fans don’t realize the effect that black music had on the greats of country music, including Hank Williams.
The interaction of black and white music at a time when blacks were being lynched in Texas — I find that incredible. Bob Wills, more than anybody else, mixed all of what he heard in West Texas, the Western music, country, black jazz, blues, the gritos and influence of Southwestern and Mexican music. It wasn’t so much a conscious thing as it was an environmental thing. There are no pure forms of American music; they’re all patchworks of our variety and the cultural experiences that we have.
Any plans for another Wills tribute album?
I figure it would be another two years or so. Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel are finishing up a CD. In that, we have some Bob Wills, some Milton Brown and Spade Cooley. It’s a tribute to all the varieties of Western swing.