It's a Good Day

Asleep At The Wheel | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 20, 2010)
• Original Release Date: 2010
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: BISMEAUX PRODUCTIONS
• ASIN: B003M70P58
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #109,334 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

It's a match made in Western Swing heaven as Ray Benson & Asleep at the Wheel team up with famed Texas Playboy Leon Rausch for their first-ever recording together. Rausch first joined Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys in 1958, was featured in the historic 1973 recording session with Wills called 'For the Last Time' and has gone on to lead bands such as 'Bob Wills' Original Texas Playboys' and 'The Playboys II.' At age 83, Rausch is one of the few Texas Playboys still performing. Asleep at the Wheel have been called 'the post-modern kings of Western Swing,' forming in 1970 in Paw Paw, West Virginia and eventually settling in Austin, TX in 1973. Celebrating forty years of continuous touring and recording, Ray Benson and his ensemble (over 100 former members and counting) have received nine GRAMMY (R) Awards and extended the legacy and vitality of a music first popularized by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Dream Match Made in Heaven for Western Swing fans, July 25, 2010

By 

Steven I. Ramm "Steve Ramm "Anything Phon... (Phila, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: It's a Good Day (Audio CD)

Ray Benson has been heading the Austin-based western swing band for 40 years now and, though a lot (over 100) of musicians have gone through its ranks as members, there is still that consistency to carrying on the spirit of Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys from their 1940s and 50s hits. Benson has also been able to put together some interesting pairings with the band. Last year's Grammy-nominated "Willie and the Wheel" was just his most recent.

While AATW has been touring the country so has a band name "Bob Wills' Original Texas Playboys" led by vocalist Leon Rauch, who was with Wills from 1958 to the early 60s. Benson has known Rauch for 38 of the 40 years AATW has been in existence so he figured it was about time to have Rauch front the band for an album. Willie Nelson must have been in town when the laid down the tracks because the "Red-Headed Stranger" shows up to duet with Rauch on "Truck Driver's Blues". I'm a big fan of Nelson's but I have to admit that the (slightly) younger Rauch (age 83) sounds better on this track. But, hey, Willie fans may try this Cd with his name on it.

What everyone will find is a fun time and a lot of great music. Equal parts swing than western is the choice of titles included here. Count Basie's hit "Alright, Okay, You Win", Earl Hines' "Rosetta", Peggy Lee's smash "It's a Good Day" are mixed with three Wills'-penned songs and Sheb Wooley's "Mean Woman with the Green Eyes".

The members of the band - with sax, trumpet and clarinet mixing with the fiddle, piano and Benson's guitar - get to stretch out on some numbers and Rauch leaves them to their instrumental prowess for the final track (Wills' "Osage Stomp").

A fun time for all - country fans, jazz fans and anyone wanting to have a good time.

Steve Ramm
"Anything Phonographic"



Steve Ramm
"Anything Phonographic"

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars True to expectations!, February 12, 2011

By 

Roxy2 - See all my reviews

This review is from: It's a Good Day (Audio CD)

What does one say??? It's Asleep at the Wheel and they stayed true to form. It's such a pleasure knowing I'm going to get this group's best all the time! Well done...

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Asleep at the Wheel Scores Again, November 19, 2010

By 

Dante - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: It's a Good Day (Audio CD)

Into their fourth decade and still doing their part to keep western swing music alive, Asleep at the Wheel continues to create vibrant and musically relevant albums. It's a Good Day is full from cover to cover of polished arrangements with an energy that feels as if the band were performing live. Once again, Ray Benson samples from the western swing genre and is joined by a talented group of musicians and singers, including 82 year old Leon Rausch, who sang for Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys in the late 1950s. Leon can still sing and sing well, and is featured on all but one vocal number plus gets into the swing of the Osage Stomp with his electric bass. Benson has had talented players come and go but still has a tight and talented band. Longtime fiddle player Jason Roberts is always a treat to hear, as are more recent Wheel members Eddie Rivers on the lap steel and Elizabeth McQueen whose powerful and melodic vocals evoke memories of great jazz and swing vocalists. Floyd Domino, the original Wheel pianist returns for his second consecutive album and it is hard to imagine a better swing and boogie woogie "piano pounder" as Bob Wills used to call Al Stricklin. Willie Nelson drops in for a joint solo with Leon Rausch, reprising his last appearance on Willie and the Wheel. A wide variety of musical styles are on display here from traditional western swing to blues, big band, and even the rocking boogie woogie of Get Your Kicks (on Route 66), and the whole thing works. This album deserves to be in your collection and I guarantee it will please for years to come.