Asleep At The Wheel

Asleep At The Wheel

Since 1969, Asleep at the Wheel has boldly defied the fickle lures of the mainstream - and thrived - by sticking to their noble cause of keeping that distinctly American of art forms, Western Swing, alive and kicking. For their efforts through the years, they’ve managed to pick up nine Grammy© awards.

WILLIE AND THE WHEEL

Bismeaux Records is very pleased to announce that Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel have teamed up to release an album collaboration due in February 2009.  A concept thirty years in the making, Willie & The Wheel is a collection of classic western swing songs hand-picked by the late Jerry Wexler. 

"Jerry wanted us to do this album and I'm glad we got to do it for him, “says Willie Nelson. “And that he heard it before he passed on."

“Willie & the Wheel is a CD whose time has come,” says Ray Benson.  “Jerry Wexler originally came up with this concept back when Willie was on the Atlantic label. But, before the record could be made Willie left Atlantic for CBS records and so the idea was shelved.”

Better known as ‘Mr. R&B’, Jerry Wexler was a great fan of the original Western Swing bands like Bob Wills, Milton Brown, Cliff Bruner – all first introduced to him while he was studying journalism in Kansas City.  Willie Nelson also had grown up on western swing and it has always figured heavily into his approach to music. Finally Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel (hailed as the modern kings of western swing) were added, resulting in a sublime album, surefooted in its mastery but still as playful and daring as the originals. Such a fitting collaboration certainly begs the question as to why this hasn’t happened already. - Source: www.reverbnation.com

Chris Duarte Group

Artist Bio
Duarte was first inspired by music at age 8 after seeing Fiddler On The Roof on television. Duarte began playing his brother's guitar, and got his first electric guitar at the age of 14 and played with bands in San Antonio. In 1979, Duarte moved to Austin, Texas and purchased a 1963 Fender Stratocaster guitar for $500. Duarte began exploring the jazz music of John Coltrane and Miles Davis.

Duarte won a label recording contract with Silvertone Records and released Texas Sugar/Strat Magik in 1994, and was named "Best New Talent" in Guitar Player’s 1995 Reader's Poll.[citation needed] He finished fourth in the magazine’s "Best Blues Guitarist" category behind Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy and B.B. King.

Though Duarte has played a limited number of U.S. dates in recent years with the Japanese band Bluestone Company backing him, he performs primarily as a power trio, the 'Chris Duarte Group'. Originally formed with long-time friends and collaborators John Jordan on bass and Jeff Hodges on drums, the current incarnation features Matt Stallard on bass and Chris Burroughs on drums. Apart from his band, Duarte has performed with Julie Burrell, Diana Cantu, Bobby Mack, Tracy Conover, Indigenous, and Omar & the Howlers.

Duarte's concert dates in Asheville, Charlotte and Greenville were filmed for "The PBS Project". This side-project featured Steve Bailey on bass and Jeff Sipe on drums.

The Texas Tornados

Artist Bio

The Texas Tornados
The ultimate Tex-Mex super group is back - Augie Meyers and Flaco Jiménez reunite with the son of Doug Sahm, Shawn Sahm in a new recording that includes five previously unreleased vocal performances from the legendary Freddy Fender.  The collection, entitled “Esta Bueno,” includes new songs written by Fender such as the swamp pop ballad “If I Could Only,” an instant new Tornados-style classic written by Doug and Shawn Sahm “Who’s to Blame, Señorita?” and several Augie Meyers songs recorded for the first time by the Tornados, such as “Velma from Selma” and “My Sugar Blue.”  The album was produced by Shawn Sahm and will be released nationally by Ray Benson's Bismeaux Records on March 2, 2010.


Shawn Sahm has been around the music since he was 13 and was the perfect person to entrust with preserving the Tornado’s legacy.  He fine-tuned each track according to the group’s feedback giving each detail serious attention.  Throughout the process, he insisted to all of them, “It is not done until you are happy.”  For the release of the album, Ray Benson’s label, Bismeaux Records in Austin, was an obvious choice.  Shawn comments, “Everyone knew they had a great record and they felt it would be important to go with someone who understood the legacy of the Texas Tornados.  I knew Ray was the right guy.  They have been friends for a long time. If anyone understood the legacy of the band, it was Ray.”

Los Lonely Boys

ARTIST BIO

Los Lonely Boys expand and enhance their trademark all-embracing Texican rock'n'roll sound on their new album Rockpango (to be released March 29th), the band's fourth and finest studio album yet. Continuing to creatively draw from and meld blues, rock from classic to modern, soul, their Latino heritage and even snippets of hip-hop, jazz and more, they display greater assurance, creativity and sophistication than ever on their new disc while continuing to offer infectious music that goes straight to the heart. The stuff that made Los Lonely Boys stars, "luscious brotherly vocal harmonies, potent songs with unshakeable pop appeal, irresistible grooves and Henry Garza's masterful guitar work", are in full abundance on Rockpango. It's a great leap forward by one of rock music's finest groups.

Reverend Horton Heat

ARTIST BIO

It’s been an almost 20-year journey for Jim Heath, aka the Reverend Horton Heat, whose country-flavored punkabilly and onstage antics have brought him and his band a strikingly diverse fan base and a devoted cult following, not to mention the respect of fellow musicians worldwide.

Undeniably, The Reverend Horton Heat, aka Jim Heath, is the biggest, baddest, grittiest, greasiest, greatest rocker that ever piled his hair up and pounded the drinks down. Without question, for all of his outlandish antics, blistering stage performances and legendary musical prowess, the one thing The Rev always gets asked about is the story behind his unusual and rather clerical moniker. "Well, there used to be this guy who ran this place in Deep Ellum, Texas who used to call me Horton- my last name is Heath," says The Rev. "Anyway, this guy hired me and right before the show he goes, "Your stage name should be Reverend Horton Heat! Your music is like gospel" and I thought it was pretty ridiculous. So I'm up there playing and after the first few songs, people are saying, "Yeah, Reverend!" What's really funny is that this guy gave up the bar business, and actually became a preacher! Now he comes to our shows and says, "Jim, you really should drop this whole Reverend thing."

It's been an almost 20-year journey for Heath, whose country-flavored punkabilly and onstage antics have brought him and his band a strikingly diverse fan base and a devoted cult following, not to mention the respect of fellow musicians worldwide. Revival, the band's first release for Yep Roc Records, is a return to Heath's roots - musical and geographical.

The album was recorded at Last Beat Studio in the Deep Ellum area of Dallas, just a block from where The Rev played his first gig and next door to where the group currently rehearses. Along with eating a lot of world-class Mexican food and BBQ, the band recorded the album's 15 tracks with a minimum of overdubs, bells and whistles. With tour manager/engineer Dave Allen at the board, they wanted an album they could duplicate live.