Asleep At The Wheel are celebrating their 50th year anniversary with an all-star project this fall!
Arriving on October 1 via Home Records/Thirty Tigers, Half A Hundred Years is a 50-year celebration of the band’s longevity that will feature 19-tracks (new songs & reimagined renditions of classic hits) and a star-studded list of collaborations, including George Strait, Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, Emmylou Harris, Lee Ann Womack and more. The album will also find the band bringing back three original members, Chris O’Connell, Leroy Preston and Lucky Oceans, for the first time in 40 years.
The GRAMMY-award winning country music group shared the second single from their forthcoming 50th anniversary album on Friday (Aug. 27) called “Take Me Back To Tulsa,” a new song that features two country superstars from the Lone Star state, Willie Nelson & George Strait. The single follows the release of the album’s title track “Half A Hundred Years,” which came out earlier this month.
“To me it doesn’t get more Texan than George, Willie, and Asleep At The Wheel doin’ a Bob Wills classic!” frontman Ray Benson said of the new track.
“Take Me Back To Tulsa” is the first Bob Wills song that Asleep At The Wheel recorded back in 1972. The song is listed as one of just eight country music performances selected for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame’s ‘500 Songs That Shaped Rock & Roll.’
Listen to the new single featuring Nelson and Strait below.
“To finally get this album finished and out feels like the end of a long strange trip, to coin a Grateful Dead phrase,” frontman Ray Benson told Billboard of the new project. “From full speed ahead to a dead stop in March 2020 navigating the new landscape of pandemic recording was a new challenge for sure!”
Benson continued, “From Perth, Australia, to Rome, Italy, from Vermont, California and Nashville to Austin, Texas, the recordings were a triumph of creativity and technology that we had to reinvent every day! Having the original band members interacting with current and former band members brought some of the most talented musicians playing the wide variety of musics that is Asleep at the Wheel! Looking forward to the summer and fall tours to get folks dancin and boogieing again!”
Fans can pre-order or pre-save the upcoming new project, Half A Hundred Years, now HERE.
Half a Hundred Years track list:
1. Half a Hundred Years
2. It’s the Same Old South feat. Chris O’Connell
3. I Do What I Must feat. Leroy Preston
4. There You Go Again feat. Lyle Lovett
5. My Little Baby feat. Chris O’Connell
6. Paycheck to Paycheck feat. Leroy Preston
7. Word to the Wise feat. Bill Kirchen
8. That’s How I Remember It feat. Chris O’Connell
9. The Photo feat. Leroy Preston
10. I Love You Most of All (When You’re Not Here) feat. Lucky Oceans
11. The Wheel Boogie
12. Take Me Back to Tulsa feat. George Strait & Willie Nelson
13. The Letter That Johnny Walker Read feat. Lee Ann Womack
14. Bump Bounce Boogie feat. Chris O’Connell, Elizabeth McQueen, & Katie Shore
15. Miles and Miles of Texas
16. Get Your Kicks on Route 66 feat. Leroy Preston, Johnny Nicholas, & Ray Benson
17. Marie Feat. Willie Nelson
18. Spanish Two Step feat. Johnny Gimble & Jesse Ashlock
19. The Road Will Hold Me Tonight feat. Emmylou Harris And Willie Nelson
