Asleep at the Wheel
American band
Asleep at the Wheel is an American Western swing music group that was formed in Paw Paw, West Virginia, in 1970, and is based in Austin, Texas. The band has won nine Grammy Awards, released over 20 albums, appeared in multiple films, toured widely in America and Europe, and charted more than 21 singles on the Billboard country charts. Their highest-charting single, "The Letter That Johnny Walker Read", peaked at number 10 in 1975.
History
Beginnings to Austin
In 1969, Ray Benson and Lucky Oceans (Reuben Gosfield), both natives of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, co-founded Asleep at the Wheel in Paw Paw, West Virginia, and soon after they found themselves opening for Alice Cooper and Hot Tuna in Washington, DC. A year later, they moved to East Oakland, California, at the invitation of Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen. After being mentioned in Rolling Stone magazine by Van Morrison, they landed a record deal with United Artists. In 1973, their debut album, Comin' Right at Ya, was released by United Artists. At the invitation of Willie Nelson, they left Oakland for Austin in 1974.
1974–1979
In 1974, Asleep at the Wheel released its self-titled second album, with a cover of Louis Jordan's "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie", which was the band's first single to hit the country charts. The following year had the release of Texas Gold, with the top-10 country hit single "The Letter That Johnny Walker Read". In addition, they played on PBS's Austin City Limits, where they have since performed a record-setting 10 times.
The public source identifies “Asleep at the Wheel” as american band. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Asleep, Wheel and American.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q732733. VIAF identifies the subject as 156068885. The Library of Congress control number is n91120916. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1970, 1975, 1969 and 1973.
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This entry incorporates text from “Asleep at the Wheel” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.