It's a Good Day

One of Ray Benson's great strengths as bandleader of Western swing stalwarts Asleep at the Wheel is his willingness to cede the spotlight to others when appropriate; his band's previous album with Willie Nelson was a match made in Texas music heaven, in part for that reason, and this is another one. Here Benson and the band are backing up singer Leon Rausch, former vocalist for Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys; Rausch and Benson trade turns on lead vocals with the very fine Elizabeth McQueen, and perform such standard fare as "Basin Street Blues" and the Wills composition "Osage Stomp," along with such nicely chosen adaptations as the Peggy Lee song "It's a Good Day" and "Truck Driver's Blues" (on which Willie Nelson makes a surprise appearance alongside Rausch). Asleep at the Wheel is a professional band in absolutely the best sense of the word: their ensemble sense is watertight but their swing is confident and relaxed; their arrangements are period-appropriate but never stodgy; and they always sound like they're having the time of their lives. Even material as tired as "Get Your Kicks (On Route 66)," which has become the band's theme song, sounds like a breath of fresh air when this band is playing and singing it. But Rausch himself is the centerpiece on this album, and he makes the most of it: his voice may have aged some in the decades since he sang with Wills, but it's lost none of its elegantly swinging expressiveness and the band knows how to showcase it perfectly.