Name: The Solana Horsham
Width: 3.625"
Depth: 9.75"
Color: Black plus one
Comment: SS-Good Life
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
We Listen.

We Respond.

We Care.

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