A Lifetime of Being
Asleep at the Wheel
Despite his Texas bona fides, Western
swing superstar Ray Benson hails from
a Jewish background in Wyndmoor.

BY GAIL SNYDER
Ray Benson, left,
poses with
George Strait.

t 6 feet, 7 inches tall, Ray Benson casts a large shadow even when
he isn’t sporting a 10-gallon hat, spangled Western suit and cow-
boy boots. In mid-November, when he calls me from his recording
studio in Austin, Texas, the baritone-voiced front man of the nine-
time Grammy Award-winning Western swing band Asleep at the
Wheel assures me he is dressed much more casually. In fact, he says,
he is wearing the Merion Golf Club golf shirt he received about five
years ago when he played in a tournament at the Ardmore club.

It seems fitting he is sporting a bit of Philly: The 64-year-old grew
up in Wyndmoor, around the corner from where my own family
lived. Known then as Ray Seifert, he was a childhood friend of my
brother, Alan. So even though Benson officially moved away from
the Philadelphia area in the 1970s — eventually landing in Austin
at the urging of his good friend and golf buddy Willie Nelson — he
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DECEMBER 17, 2015
is at heart a Philadelphian and a proud product of its Jewish com-
munity. Although he was named Texan of the Year in 2011 and Texas
State Musician in 2004, his considerable musical accomplishments
have only just been acknowledged here in his hometown. A mu-
sician, singer, bandleader and songwriter, he’s been onstage with
the likes of Bob Dylan, Dolly Parton, Charlie Rich and Emmylou
Harris, and performed for Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton
and Barack Obama. Yet it was not until last month that he was
named to the Philadelphia Music Walk of Fame, along with The
Trammps (“Disco Inferno”), Jerry Blavat and The Roots. Benson,
who was in town for the ceremony that gave him a bronze plaque
on the sidewalk near the Kimmel Center, says it was “so cool” to
be in such company. He recalls the reception he got from the au-
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