Ray Benson

Ray Benson: this wheel drives solo (Jul 2003)

A sleep at the Wheel's 30-year career provides a direct route along which Western swing travels. Its longtime leader Ray Benson can be rightly thanked for having saved the music of Bob Wills, Spade Cooley and Milton Brown. But Benson's tastes flow further than Western swing's trail travels. Benson punctuates that statement with his first solo album, "Beyond Time." Listeners need not listen to a single track before concluding that Wheel's longtime leader has come up with a different sound. Just look at the cover.  ...