Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • Page 18

KHfH 1U ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL Saturday, March 12, 199-1 Musician Keeps Band Focused on Western Swing that we later learned was a stroke, and they took him out. As they wheeled him past, I said, 'Hello, Mr. and he nodded. Two hours later, he went into a coma." Wills spent the rest of his life in a nursing home. On May 13, 1975, the night Wills died, Benson and the band were playing the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas, one of Wills' old haunts.

Wills and the Playboys were the opening act when the club, managed by the infamous Jack Ruby, opened in 1950. Three thousand people were at the club to dance to Asleep at the Wheel the night that Bob Wills died. "It was more than we'd ever drawn," Benson said. "At that moment, we felt the responsibility of the music." singing "Yearning (Just for Dolly Parton doing "Billy George Strait and Benson singing "Big Ball's in and many other guests, is the result of Benson's persistence. Asleep at the Wheel was one of few national bands doing Western swing through the 1970s and into the '80s.

Then George Strait came along with music drawn from his Texas heritage: Western swing. "George Strait is responsible for bringing Western swing into the country charts," said Benson. He also credits Haggard and Mel Tillis for keeping Wills-style big-band music alive. Asleep at the Wheel's first single was a Wills tune, "Take Me Back to Tulsa," something of an omen for what was to come. Through its 14 albums, the Wheel has demonstrated the kind of musically innovative spirit that Wills personified.

The result is that the band has had' 16 Grammy nominations and was voted the Academy of Country Music's Best Touring Band. Reflecting on Wills and the Wheel, Benson described a mystical link to the Texas fiddler and his music, even though the two never really had a chance to talk. It could have happened in 1973, while Wills was recording, "For the Last Time," his final album, but fate intervened. "We pulled up and walked in," Benson recalled the recording session. "He was in a wheelchair, sitting up.

Then something happened Wheel would adopt the musical philosophy of Wills, who drew from many styles of music, including jazz, Dixieland, pop, blues and Texas fiddle tunes. "Beyond the music, what Wills did was Western vaudeville," said Benson, "with a girl singer and yodel-ing. What he did on stage was very important." Benson said he grew up on rhythm-and-blues and rock 'n' roll, but Western swing had an instant appeal. "Me and a number of my friends enjoyed this stuff," he said. "It's timeless music.

It totally appeals to a couple of really strong elements it's very musical, and it's great dance music." The album, which features Garth Brooks singing "Deep Marty Stuart on Vince Gill is too young to have grown up with much of it, but he has spent the past 23 years of his life studying it, playing it and promoting it. "Asleep at the Wheel Tribute to the Music of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys," a double album with big-name guest voices, recently was released by Liberty Records. The seven months of working on the album was a labor of love for Benson, who was drawn to Wills' music by Merle Haggard's album "A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World (or My Salute to Bob released about 1970. "Haggard turned me on to the subtleties of Bob Wills," Benson said. Those were the formative years for Asleep at the Wheel, a time when the young band was defining its music.

From that time on, the focus was clear: Asleep at the By Diane Samms Rush KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS FORT WORTH Ray Benson -lowered his 6-foot-6 frame onto a sofa backstage at Billy Bob's Texas, the World's Largest Honky Tonk. I le hafl a few minutes to talk before he and his band, Asleep at the Wheel, went on stage for an evening billed as a Western Swing Festival. Red Steagall was there, with his Coleman County Cowboys band. Fiddle master Johnny Gimble was there, and so was singer-guitarist Leon Rausch both alumni of Bob Wills' famous Texas Playboys band, which made a huge mark on musical history from the late 1930s through the '40s. Western swing was the topic of the evening.

It is also the center of Benson's professional life. At 42, he Book Explains Barney's World THE SIXTH ANNUALS AITS ARTS CHICAGO TRIBUNE floral over a geometric. The floral would allow me to blend in with the other women of Mayberry while a geometric would call too much NEW MEXICO STATE FAIRGROUNDS MARCH 12 and 13, 1994 1 75 fine Artists Craftsmen from all over the country Entertainment Demonstrations j-EXLOhA! for kids Don Knotts attention to my Food Festive ON CRIMINAL REHABILITATION: "Most criminal types can be helped by constructive hobbies such as woodcarving and Mr. Potato Head sets." ON ROMANCE: "If after a month or so your date keeps dragging her mother along, you've got a problem. Nip it! Nip it! Nip it!" ON MEN'S FASHION: "In picking out a suit, don't be swayed by the styles you see in those magazines over at Floyd's Barber Shop.

I've, seen many a fella pick out a suit that was all the rage in the big city and in five or 10 years it's out of style." ON LOOKING INCONSPICUOUS WHILE ON STAKEOUTS: "The more normal you can look, the better. For example, if I were going to have to dress up like an old lady, I would select a printed SATURDAY 10am 6Dm SUNDAY 10am 5Dm fmVfM Hi Admission $3.00 Children under 12 FREE Magic and Juggling Shows Both Days at 12 noon and 2pm physique." ON POLITICS: "Politics and politicians have been around for a lot'a years and we're likely not to get rid of 'em any time soon. I guess most of the good, common folks of this country will keep right on living their lives and raising their kids and keeping their yards neat in spite of politicians, not because of 'em." From "Barney Fife's Guide to Life, Love and Self -Defense" 1 II II i I BWL Bli 1 KMC KOa. MALTS 41 IS MODERN SET Sofa Loveseat Any reaction to the book so far from Andy Griffith or Barney Fife's alter ego, Don Knotts? "I understand Andy has read the book and given it his blessing," Oszustowicz says. "I've been told Don Knotts has read the book, but that's all I've heard." At least Knotts hasn't said, "Nip it!" took a much longer and broader view of life, and that's something maybe we should all do.

"The show is funny, but you learn something, and I hope the book reflects that," adds Oszustowicz, who notes proudly that some bookstores are "filing the book in the psychology section because it's kind of like folk wisdom." 5 VARIOUS COLORS CONTINUED FROM PAGE B1 attributed to Mayberry mechanic GomerPyle. I "Both mother and I believe it to be an excellent piece of literature for I all ages," notes Mayberry govern-l ment functionary Howard Sprague. Opie Taylor declares, "It's the first book I ever read cover to cov- er," while Barney himself com- ments, with customary modesty, "It's big, REALLY BIG!" It's certainly big with fans of "The Andy Griffith Show," which has been running in syndication throughout America (not to mention countries such as Turkey and New Zealand) for nearly 30 years and now is seen in more than 100 U.S. I markets. An initial printing in mid-; November of 25,000 copies of "Bar- ney Fife's Guide to Life, Love and Self-Defense" sold out quickly; a second printing, of 50,000 copies, is now in bookstores.

Best of all, part of the proceeds from sales benefit children's chari-ties. "That's the way they would do it in Mayberry," says Len Oszustowicz, 38, an Arlington, Texas, lawyer and longtime "Andy Griffith Show" fan who wrote the book with his brother I John, 40, a lawyer who lives in I Carlisle, Pa. "We felt that if we were going to write a book about Barney I and Mayberry, we ought to act like the people who live there." -1 Oszustowicz brothers, who say they will donate all author roy-l alties to organizations that fulfill I wishes for children with life-threat--. ening illnesses, got the idea for the book during one of their frequent conversations about daily doings in Mayberry. i "We grew up watching the show in Eldred, a town that was a lot like Mayberry," says Len Oszustowicz, interviewed recently as he sipped ice water from a mug featuring Bar- ney's face and the words, "Nip it, nip it in the bud," Fearless Fife's I favorite expression.

"It had a town drunk, one policeman who was also the police chief, and little old ladies who made pickles. You had people helping people, which is what May-. berry is all about. weren't allowed to watch much TV, but we were allowed to watch 'The Andy Griffith Show because there was more to it than I fun; there was a message in every I show, and the comedy was never mean-spirited. Barney screwed up everything he did, but his intentions were always pure and his heart was always in the right place.

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Speakers Fnx mm $29995 mmmamtmmmmmmmmmmmtm watt mnjuuM namm Then deterrent faceplate BRAftD new CD iidik, sjn in imi'-tunti 24 preset Auto memory uetlrontc audio control 4 gold preouts 10 disc suto-cnanger Stock 8X Oversampling Search, scan, random play Tout fortune may just come true because the loved the show and kept on watch-; ing it and talking about it as adults, and one day this past summer we started wondering if anybody would be interested in reading about how Barn sees the world." Collaborating by fax and phone, with Len doing the bulk of the writ- ing John doing most of the research, and both siblings rewatching tapes of virtually every "Andy Griffith Show" episode at least twice, the pair combined verbatim quotes from the series with original material written convinc- ingly in the Fife style. "I don't think a person who didn't live the small-town experience could have done it," muses Oszus-l towicz, who says he got so deeply into the Fife psyche in the process that his two young daughters now jokingly refer to him as Barney. "You had to get into Barney's head and think about what he must have been thinking to have done the i things he did. It wasn't that hard to do, though, because I'm kind of a little wiry guy myself," Oszustowicz confesses. "My brother's a big guy, art all-state athlete.

You can get I yourself in the Barney mode very easily if you've sometimes been a little guy in a big guy's world." Oszustowicz attributes the contin-; tiing popularity of "The Andy Grif-; fith Show" superstation TBS even used the series as counterprogram-'. ming on Super Bowl Sunday to its underlying values as well as its humor. show says try your best, have character, practice the golden rule," says the author. "Deep in our hearts, we all wish we were living I this way. In Mayberry, what you "stood for was important.

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