Name: Chandler Hall Health Services
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Color: Black plus one
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Benson Continued from Page 17
Benson is a longtime friend and collaborator of some of the
biggest names in country music, including Dolly Parton.

Benson’s own career as a performer began at age 10, when he and
his sister Sandy performed with a folk music group called The Four
G’s. Benson, who played guitar, found himself hooked on performing
when the children’s group played with the Philadelphia Orchestra
in front of 5,000 people.

While he excelled at music, mastering the sousaphone and bass
and playing in orchestras and marching band, Benson had a tough
time in school; although highly intelligent, his attention deficit dis-
order made it hard for him to concentrate, and he frequently got in
trouble for talking in class.

After graduating from Penn Charter in 1969, Benson enrolled
in Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, as a filmmaking student,
but dropped out in 1970 to start Asleep at the Wheel with friends
Reuben Gosfield and LeRoy Preston. The idea was to bring every-
thing they loved about Western swing music, which developed in
the 1920s in the Southwest, to a new generation of fans who would
appreciate its combination of jazz and blues accented by trombone,
trumpet, clarinet, guitar and steel guitar. Benson describes it as “a
great amalgamation of Afro-American, jazz, blues, swing and Texas
country fiddling.”
Some 100 musicians have played with Asleep at the Wheel over
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THE GOOD LIFE
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



the years and today Ben-
son remains its only
original member. His
son, Sam, 32, has pro-
duced the group’s last
two albums and plays
guitar on them. Son
Aaron, 29, edits movie
trailers in Los Angeles.

Like his friend Willie
Nelson, who just turned
80, Benson has no plans to
retire. He neither feels his
age nor acts it, and still
spends quite a bit of time
on the road, traveling in
his tour bus to appear-
ances. Every 18 months or
so, he and his band will do
two shows at the Sell-
ersville Theater.

He says, “The only time
I’ll stop is when it stops me.

If I can’t do it or people
stop coming or my fingers
don’t work, or my voice
don’t work.” l
Gail Snyder recently put
Asleep at the Wheel into
her Spotify.

Benson is front and center for Asleep at the Wheel’s first publicity shot in the 1960s.

Name: Goldstein's Funeral Home
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Depth: 4.75"
Color: Black plus one
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DECEMBER 17, 2015
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