Blind Boys of Alabama & Asleep At The Wheel

The Blind Boys Christmas Show mixes holiday standards with selections from their Grammy-winning holiday classic album, Go Tell It On The Mountain and the spirited Talkin’ Christmas album. Blind Boys will have everyone in the audience singing and clapping along to spread the joy of the season! 

“The beloved gospel ensemble the Blind Boys of Alabama...remains perennially fresh, whether it’s interjecting godliness into unexpected songs or, as in this case, saluting Christmas.” – The New Yorker

About Blind Boys of Alabama

The Blind Boys of Alabama are recognized worldwide as living legends of gospel music. Celebrated by The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and The Recording Academy/GRAMMYs with Lifetime Achievement Awards, inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, and winners of six GRAMMY® Awards, they have attained the highest levels of achievement in a career that spans over 70 years. The Blind Boys are known for crossing multiple musical boundaries with their remarkable interpretations of everything from traditional gospel favorites to contemporary spiritual material by songwriters such as Eric Clapton, Prince, and Tom Waits. They have appeared on recordings with many artists, including Lou Reed, Peter Gabriel, Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Aaron Neville, Susan Tedeschi, Ben Harper, Patty Griffin, and Taj Mahal.

The Blind Boys released their latest album, 'Echoes Of The South,’ in August of 2023. It found the Gospel Music Hall of Fame inductees coming home to Alabama to record in Muscle Shoals. The eleven-song collection is a portrait of perseverance from a group well-versed in overcoming incredible odds - from singing for pocket change in the Jim Crow South to performing for three different American presidents, soundtracking the Civil Rights movement, and helping define modern gospel music as we know it. The album garnered three GRAMMY® Award nominations, and won for Best Roots Gospel Album.

That win continued a run of GRAMMY® Award nominations from the two previous years. In 2021, the group’scollaborative recording with Béla Fleck, ‘I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free,’ was tapped in the Best American Roots Performance category. In 2022, they garnered another nod for their collaboration with the band Black Violin on 'The Message’ in the Best Americana Performance category.

In March 2024, the definitive book on the Blind Boys of Alabama, titled Spirit of the Century, was released. It’s an insider history of America’s longest-running group and the untold story of their world, written with band members and key musical colleagues. Appearances on The View tv show and other major media outlets followed. After all these years, the Blind Boys show no signs of slowing down!

About Asleep At The Wheel 

In February of 1974 Asleep at the Wheel made the move from the Bay Area to Austin, Texas. After playing the Armadillo World Headquarters with Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen in 1973 – and receiving encouragement from Willie Nelson and Doug Sahm to relocate – the band settled in and made Austin their home, where they remain 50 years later.

“Austin was and has been everything I could have ever wished for and more,” says Ray Benson, the band’s leader and only original member. “It’s been 55 years for AATW as a band, and 50 of them have been spent in Texas. We are known worldwide for being a Texas band and playing Texas and Western Swing music. It brings us great pride to carry this torch and responsibility. We don’t take it lightly!”

Asleep at the Wheel’s lineup is ever changing. Since 1970 the band has had over 100 members come through. In the past, when a new member or two has joined a new album has emerged. In 2025 that still remains true. “We had some more line up changes after the pandemic and our 50th anniversary tour,” says Benson. “We had some folks who had been with us for a while move on. But, like always, we kept playing live shows and searching for the next members to identify themselves – here we are!”

One key and important role in Asleep at the Wheel and in Texas and Western Swing music is the fiddle. “It’s crazy to think that Ian Stewart, our newest vocalist and fiddler, grew up five minutes away from my house and that had nothing to do with the reason he is in the band,” says Benson. “Ian had a residency at the Broken Spoke as his own act. Danny Levin, who was there at the start of AATW in West Virginia and was in the band through the 70’s and early 80’s, had a relationship with Ian and a group with him and suggested him for the gig. Danny’s word was enough for me – he knows the gig as much as anyone.”

“Having grown up in Austin, Texas, Asleep at the Wheel is a name that has always commanded respect and it’s an honor to join their ranks,” says Stewart. “It’s an invaluable education working with a team that brings a fresh twist to the traditional music that I love and grew up listening to. I feel lucky every time I step on stage – it’s a ride I’m thankful to be on.” 

What has followed the recent lineup change is a steady dose of touring the world – and now the band’s 32nd record Riding High In Texas, featuring Stewart and Benson as the band’s lead vocalists. This marks AATW’s first new release since their 50th anniversary project Half A Hundred Years in 2021.

“I have always wanted to do a ‘Texas’ record – a thank you and love letter to this state that has given me and the band so much. I also thought it was the right project to take on with the new faces we had in the band, who had never been on record before,” says Benson. “Within these tracks there’s an unmistakable musical tradition that you can’t get anywhere else – except deep in the heart of Texas,” says Stewart.

“Just like the state of Texas and Asleep at the Wheel, this album is bold, soulful, and rooted in a rich heritage guaranteed to keep toes tappin’!” adds Stewart.

Joining Stewart for their very first Wheel album appearances are Michael Archer (bass), Curtis Clogston (steel guitar/dobro) and Lyon Graulty (horns). AATW former members Danny Levin (piano/fiddle), Joey Colarusso (horns) and David Sanger (drums) round out the group for this new record, Riding High In Texas.

Stewart and Benson share the attention on this new record, with Stewart singing the title track “Riding High In Texas” - a Peter Rowan penned tune - that features “some hot pickin’” from Billy Strings. “I’ve been a fan of Billy’s for a long while now and got to hang with him and check out his shows. He’s such a wonderful guy.” says Benson. “I appeared briefly in one of his music videos, but we’d never had done anything musically together – until now. When it came time to lay down a solo on ‘Riding High,’ I couldn’t think of anyone better, and unsurprisingly, he played amazingly like he always does.”

AATW are no strangers to guests on their albums, including longtime collaborator Lyle Lovett – who joins in on the song “Long Tall Texan.” “I’ve known Lyle now for almost 40 years,” says Benson. “To me, he’s the best Texas songwriter, stylist and person. I love Lyle and getting to make music with him. We couldn’t do a Texas record without him!”

The record blends well-known Texas tunes like George Strait’s anthem “All My Exes (Live in Texas)” to Guy Clark’s “Texas Cookin’” with more obscure selections like “Still A Lot of Love in San Antone” plus songs by non-Texans such as The Carter Family’s “Lonesome Pine Special” (which Benson says Hazel Dickens version was an influence for this album) “T For Texas (Blue Yodel No. 1)” by Jimmie Rodgers and “Texas” by Charlie Daniels.

“We weren’t trying to make Texas’ Greatest Hits,” says Benson. “That would have been too on the nose – and daunting. We picked songs that fit this group the best and that Ian and I felt we could do justice to.”

“Texas In My Soul” was written by Ernest Tubb and popularized by Willie Nelson. “Beaumont Rag,” the Texas fiddle tune and instrumental, rounds out the 10 song album. “ET and Willie are probably my biggest Texas influences,” Benson adds. “And AATW always includes an instrumental on our records – ‘Beaumont Rag’  just felt right for this one.”

“This album is an introduction to the current and future of AATW,” says Benson. “I know another 55 years isn’t in the cards, but I want to keep pushing and creating as much as I can, for as long as I can. Ian and the new guys give me the motivation and energy to keep this going. I hope everyone enjoys this eclectic collection of some of our favorite songs about Texas. The future for AATW is bright – and we’ll keep on Riding High In Texas!”