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
A 16
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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dience at the event.

“All of a sudden this
big cowboy gets up
and says, ‘I bet y’all
are wondering how
a Jewish kid from
Philadelphia be-
came a cowboy-
singer. I can tell
you in two words:
Sally Starr.’ They
all just died
laughing.” Benson’s an- Benson’s
swer elicited memoir was released last month to
laughter, but he critical acclaim.

was serious. While
other baby boomers his age likely watched Sally Starr’s Popeye The-
ater television show and delighted in the antics of Roy Rogers, Dale
Evans and Fess Parker’s Davy Crockett on their shows, most quickly
grew out of their cowboy fascination. Benson grew into his.

Perhaps it all began when he was 7 and his family took him to
see Gene Autry when the star was making a personal appearance
at WCAU on City Line Avenue. It was a moment Benson has never
forgotten. Benson is in a reminiscing mood, trading stories with
me about our shared idyllic upbringing in Springfield Township,
Montgomery County, where he spent a lot of time outdoors in the
woods catching toads, snakes and frogs and riding horses. The
nostalgic look back has been prompted by his new, anecdote-filled
memoir, Comin’ Right at Ya: How a Jewish Yankee Hippie Went
Country, or, the Often Outrageous History of Asleep at the Wheel
(University of Texas Press, 2015).

When the publisher first contacted him, Benson quickly agreed
to work with writer David Menconi because he thought it was time
— after 25 Asleep at the Wheel albums and four decades of live per-
formances — to share his life story. He explains, “For 45 years, I
have existed as this guy who everybody thinks was born on a ranch
in Texas and is probably Baptist.” When he would point out that he
was Jewish, the once skinny, red-haired Benson was often told he
neither looked nor sounded Jewish.

Benson also agreed to the book because he had taken more
than 70,000 words worth of notes throughout his career that were
just waiting for a professional writer to turn into a book. Among
the improbable anecdotes he tells in Comin’ Right At Ya is the story
of how he coaxed Janis Joplin’s rental car into starting when Big
Brother & the Holding Company was playing in Philadelphia, and
how he bummed cigarettes from the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia
— both of which happened when he was a teen. He even showed
up at Woodstock, although he and his friends left before they heard
any music.

See Benson, Page 13
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