<\/p>\n
When Asleep at the Wheel decided to record a record of Texas-centric songs to commemorate the Western swing outfit spending 50 of its 55 years in the Lone Star State, Ray Benson had a simple request: \u201cLet\u2019s just do songs about Texas that mean something to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
The result is Riding High in Texas<\/em>, a celebration of all things Texas, out now. The record features covers of high-profile artists and songwriters and an array of special guests across its 10 tracks, including Lyle Lovett, Brennen Leigh, and Billy Strings<\/a>.<\/p>\n More from Rolling Stone<\/strong><\/p>\n Lovett joins Asleep at the Wheel to reprise his version of \u201cLong Tall Texan,\u201d and Leigh contributes vocals on a cover of the Carter Family\u2019s \u201cLonesome Pine Special.\u201d Meanwhile, Strings plays guitar on the album-opening title track after Benson called in a favor with the modern-day bluegrass torchbearer.<\/p>\n Benson appeared in Strings\u2019 2024 spaghetti western video for \u201cSeven Months in County,\u201d <\/a>playing, in Benson\u2019s words, \u201cthe old codger to be Strings\u2019 cellmate.\u201d During that shoot, Benson decided Strings needed to play on \u201cRiding High in Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe became friendly,\u201d Benson tells Rolling Stone<\/em>. \u201cWhen they booked me to do his film, I just asked him, \u2018Hey, could you play on this?\u2019 And I tell you what, that guy is busier than anybody, and he fit it in. Good thing, because I don\u2019t play that kind of flatpicking stuff well enough.\u201d<\/p>\n While the guests add intrigue and twists to the 32nd studio album for Asleep at the Wheel, the constant is the band\u2019s fiddle-forward Western swing sound played over a series of songs that evoke the Lone Star State. Renditions of \u201cAll My Exes (Live in Texas)\u201d and \u201cT for Texas\u201d lay that point bare, while covers of Guy Clark (\u201cTexas Cookin\u201d) and Ernest Tubb (\u201cTexas in My Soul\u201d) serve as reminders of Benson\u2019s appreciation for Texas\u2019s songwriting icons.<\/p>\n Asleep at the Wheel are a constantly-evolving project rather than a set-in-stone band, which is evident with the addition of Ian Stewart, who joined the band on fiddle in 2024 but quickly took over some vocal duties for the 74-year-old Benson. Riding High in Texas<\/em> has Stewart swapping lead vocals with Benson, but the highlight is his fiddle playing on \u201cBeaumont Rag,\u201d the record\u2019s instrumental closing track.<\/p>\n \u201cIan joined the band,\u201d Benson says, \u201cafter I hired him as a fiddle player, but when it was obvious that he was gonna share singing, I said, \u2018Bring some stuff.\u2019 I hope that everybody who\u2019s in this band will bring something to the table, so that I don\u2019t have to say, \u2018Do this.\u2019 This is a collaborative thing.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the contest world, where the fiddlers get together, Texas goes back to some guys from the Twenties and Thirties, after Bob Wills. They were not swing fiddlers, but they had a little swing in them, and that\u2019s what \u2018Beaumont Rag\u2019 really shows. So, I said, \u2018Ian, you\u2019re a Texas fiddler, and you\u2019re gonna have to play that. Let\u2019s put it on this album,\u2019 and he worked it up real good.\u201d<\/p>\n Before Riding High in Texas<\/em> was released, Asleep at the Wheel already started touring the record, and they have a full schedule ahead of them, including festival stops at Austin City Limits and the Avett Brothers\u2019 Moon Crush: Avett Moon in Miramar Beach, Florida, in October. The group was also inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in August, which Benson attributes to the band embracing the Lone Star State since relocating there in 1974.<\/p>\n He also says that relentless touring and a constant churn of new music help him maintain a focus, even with a catalog and accolades that could justify slowing down or retiring altogether.<\/p>\n \u201cThe legacy of Asleep at the Wheel, I think, is pretty firmly entrenched. But my outlets are still creating music, and bringing people together \u2014 always by collaboration,\u201d Benson says. \u201cI don\u2019t see any way out of this mess unless I do something. Otherwise, I\u2019ll feel useless.\u201d<\/p>\n Josh Crutchmer is a journalist and author whose latest books, <\/em>Never Say Never<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>Red Dirt Unplugged<\/em><\/a> are available via Back Lounge Publishing.<\/em><\/p>\n Best of Rolling Stone<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for RollingStone’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Asleep at the Wheel decided to record a record of Texas-centric songs to commemorate the Western swing outfit spending 50 of its 55 years in the Lone Star State, Ray Benson had a simple request: \u201cLet\u2019s just do songs about Texas that mean something to you.\u201d The result is Riding High in Texas, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1991356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[359867,344632,359869,359868,359866,314737,22428],"class_list":["post-1991355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-asleep-at-the-wheel","tag-billy-strings","tag-brennen-leigh","tag-lone-star-state","tag-ray-benson","tag-rolling-stone","tag-texas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Asleep-at-the-Wheel-Still-Have-That-Texas-Swing.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1991355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1991355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1991355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1991356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1991355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1991355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1991355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}