Search - Asleep at the Wheel and Leon Rausch :: It's a Good Day

It's a Good Day
Asleep at the Wheel and Leon Rausch
It's a Good Day
Genres: Country, Folk, Pop
 
  •  Track Listings (12) - Disc #1

It's a match made in Western Swing heaven as Ray Benson & Asleep at the Wheel team up with famed Texas Playboy Leon Rausch for their first-ever recording together. Rausch first joined Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys i...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Asleep at the Wheel and Leon Rausch
Title: It's a Good Day
Members Wishing: 0
Total Copies: 0
Label: BISMEAUX PRODUCTIONS
Original Release Date: 1/1/2010
Re-Release Date: 7/20/2010
Genres: Country, Folk, Pop
Style:
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 678572967023

Synopsis

Product Description
It's a match made in Western Swing heaven as Ray Benson & Asleep at the Wheel team up with famed Texas Playboy Leon Rausch for their first-ever recording together. Rausch first joined Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys in 1958, was featured in the historic 1973 recording session with Wills called 'For the Last Time' and has gone on to lead bands such as 'Bob Wills' Original Texas Playboys' and 'The Playboys II.' At age 83, Rausch is one of the few Texas Playboys still performing. Asleep at the Wheel have been called 'the post-modern kings of Western Swing,' forming in 1970 in Paw Paw, West Virginia and eventually settling in Austin, TX in 1973. Celebrating forty years of continuous touring and recording, Ray Benson and his ensemble (over 100 former members and counting) have received nine GRAMMY (R) Awards and extended the legacy and vitality of a music first popularized by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys.

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CD Reviews

A Dream Match Made in Heaven for Western Swing fans
Steven I. Ramm | Phila, PA USA | 07/25/2010
(4 out of 5 stars)

"Ray Benson has been heading the Austin-based western swing band for 40 years now and, though a lot (over 100) of musicians have gone through its ranks as members, there is still that consistency to carrying on the spirit of Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys from their 1940s and 50s hits. Benson has also been able to put together some interesting pairings with the band. Last year's Grammy-nominated "Willie and the Wheel" was just his most recent.



While AATW has been touring the country so has a band name "Bob Wills' Original Texas Playboys" led by vocalist Leon Rauch, who was with Wills from 1958 to the early 60s. Benson has known Rauch for 38 of the 40 years AATW has been in existence so he figured it was about time to have Rauch front the band for an album. Willie Nelson must have been in town when the laid down the tracks because the "Red-Headed Stranger" shows up to duet with Rauch on "Truck Driver's Blues". I'm a big fan of Nelson's but I have to admit that the (slightly) younger Rauch (age 83) sounds better on this track. But, hey, Willie fans may try this Cd with his name on it.



What everyone will find is a fun time and a lot of great music. Equal parts swing than western is the choice of titles included here. Count Basie's hit "Alright, Okay, You Win", Earl Hines' "Rosetta", Peggy Lee's smash "It's a Good Day" are mixed with three Wills'-penned songs and Sheb Wooley's "Mean Woman with the Green Eyes".



The members of the band - with sax, trumpet and clarinet mixing with the fiddle, piano and Benson's guitar - get to stretch out on some numbers and Rauch leaves them to their instrumental prowess for the final track (Wills' "Osage Stomp").



A fun time for all - country fans, jazz fans and anyone wanting to have a good time.



Steve Ramm

"Anything Phonographic"







Steve Ramm

"Anything Phonographic"

"
Asleep at the Wheel
E. G. Hall | Lake Worth, FL USA | 08/11/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's Asleep at the Wheel's newest. Always good country swing and never a bad cut. Asleep at the Wheel is still the best out there for good old country swing. A must have if you are a fan. Plus this has Leon Rausch one of the original Playboy's and just as good at 80 as he was in his younger days."