Comin' Right at Ya: How a Jewish Yankee Hippie Went Country, or, the Often Outrageous History of Asleep at the Wheel (Brad and Michele Moore Roots Music Series)

Image of Comin' Right at Ya: How a Jewish Yankee Hippie Went Country, or, the Often Outrageous History of Asleep at the Wheel (Brad and Michele Moore Roots Music Series)
Author(s): 
Release Date: 
December 6, 2022
Publisher/Imprint: 
University of Texas Press
Pages: 
200
Reviewed by: 

Comin’ Right at Ya is a quick, snarky, enjoyable read, especially for outliers and real Western swing music aficionados.”

Ray Benson, quick-witted star of the mega-group, Asleep at the Wheel, begins his memoir by recounting one of the many gigs—this one in 1979—when the club owner tried to stiff the band after their show. “Sometimes it helps to be six-foot-seven,” said Benson; and he did not leave until the venue coughed up every penny.

And while the group was up for a Grammy that night but didn’t attend in Los Angeles because they needed money, to his astonishment, they won the Grammy for Best Country Instrumental!

Benson started Asleep at the Wheel as a college band in the 1970s, with “lofty (and naive) ideas. . . . and there never was anything like a long-term plan.”

Born Ray Benson Seifert in 1951 in Philadelphia to a liberal Jewish family, he was the third of four children. The family of six drove all over the United States in a VW Microbus during vacations.

“I started trying to whistle at about age four, so I guess that’s when making music started for me.” Deemed a problem child with apparent ADD, he had to have an outlet. At nine, he started picking on a family guitar and that proved to be his outlet, and he started with country and folk music.

As a teen, Benson played in several bands, learned several instruments, and participated in school sports because he was always so tall. Living in the Philly area especially afforded him the opportunity to meet many musical legends, including John Coltrane, Jerry Garcia, Stevie Wonder, and Janis Joplin. Then in 1969 he briefly crashed Woodstock.

In 1969, Benson also dropped out of Antioch College, attempting to create a band in West Virginia. While living there, Wavy Gravy and the Hog Farmers stopped by and invited Benson and friends to play their first legit gig in Washington, D.C., with Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna. “Asleep at the Wheel was becoming one of the few proud and brave bands that could play for hippies and hicks alike.

Soon their act added two “girl” singers, who took the band to the next level. The band moved to California in 1971. They went on the road as backup band for Stoney Edwards, and Benson was “living the Yankee Jewboy hippie’s dream of becoming a hillbilly musician.”

A record deal followed, in 1972, with United Artists. In 1974, the band moved to Austin. ““Hell,” Willie (Nelson) said, “if you can play ‘Cotton Eye Joe’ and ‘Fraulein,’ you can work all week.”

By 1980, the band were on the road in the middle of the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, when Benson awoke to a bang, with volcanic ash spread all around the area, eventually destroying their bus.

Benson met and married Diane, a nurse, in 1981. Their first son, Sam, was born in 1983, and Benson quit cocaine. Second son, Aaron, was born in 1986.

Benson has called Willie Nelson a good friend for many years. Once, Nelson lent him $10,000 for a record deal that fell through. “But Willie just laughed it off—and never asked for it back.”

He did a no-hit movie with Dolly Parton in 1991. And in 2001, perhaps because he was on the road more than at home, Diane asked for a divorce. Shortly thereafter, Benson contracted hepatitis C, possibly, he thought, from a bad tattoo.

Multi Grammy-winning Benson, never a fan of Nashville politics, tells his story with no holds barred, which keeps the reviewer’s attention throughout. Asleep at the Wheel is a band that was born to honor Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys’ music.

As Benson sums it up, “Asleep at the Wheel doesn’t really fit in anywhere and never has.” Comin’ Right at Ya is a quick, snarky, enjoyable read, especially for outliers and real Western swing music aficionados.