Santa Cruz Sentinel from Santa Cruz, California • Page 70

14 Spotlight Santa Cruz Sentinel April 4. 1986 ftP 1 Wheel keeps on rolling along the right trail Asleep at the Wheel Billboard's top 20 Thomas Conley (RCA) 7. "Feelin' the The Bellamy 8. "I Had a Beautiful Time" Merle Haggard (Epic) 9. "1982" Randy Travis (Warner Bros.) 10.

"Grandpa" The Judds (RCA-Curb) 11. "Sweeter and Sweeter" The Statler Bros. (Mercury) 12. "Easy to Please" Janie Fricke (Columbia) 13. "Ain't MisbehavuT" Hank Williams Jr.

(Warner-Curb) 14. "Working Without a Net" Way-Ion Jennings (MCA) 15. "Tomb of the Unknown Love" Kenny Rogers (RCA) 16. "One Love At a Time" Tanya Tucker (Capitol) 17. "Wboever's in New England" Reba McEntire (MCA) 18.

"Miami, My Amy" Keith Whitley (RCA) 19. "Hold On" Rosanne Cash (Columbia) 20. "100 Chance of Rain" Gary Morris (Wamer Bros.) ADULT CONTEMPORARY SINGLES 1. "Overjoyed" Stevie Wonder (Tamla) 2. "Tender Love" Force M.D.'s (Warner Boy) 3.

"These Dreams" Heart (Capitol) 4. "Secret Lovers" Atlantic Starr 5. "Nikita" Elton John (Geffen) 6. "I Think It's Love" Jermaine Jackson (Arista) 7. "Whisper in the Dark" Dionne Warwick (Arista) 8.

"Now and Forever" Anne Murray (Capitol) 9. "Take Me Home" Phil Collins (Atlantic) 10. "Greatest Love of All" Whitney Houston (Arista) 11. "So Far Away" Dire Straits (Warner Bros.) 12. "Sara" Starship (Grunt) 13.

"Call Me" Dennis DeYoung 14. "Only One" James Taylor (Columbia) 15. "Love Can Take Us All the Way" Jack Wagner with Valerie Carter (QWest) Barbra Streisand (Columbia)-Platinum 11. "Listen Like Thieves" Inxs (At-lantic)-Gold (More than 500,000 units sold.) 12. "Knee Deep In the Hoopla" Starship (Grunt)-Platinum 13.

"5150" Van Halen (Warner Bros.) 14. "Different Light" Bangles (Columbia) 15. "No Jacket Required" Phil Collins (Atlantic)-Platinum 16. "Pictures for Pleasure" Charlie Sexton (MCA) 17. "Afterbumer" ZZ Top (Warner 18.

"Riptide" Robert Palmer (Island) 19. "As the Band Turns" Atlantic Starr -Gold 20. "Nervous Night" The Hooters (Columbia)-Platinum COUNTRY SINGLES 1. "Sbe and Alabama (RCA) 2. "Cajun Moon" Ricky Skaggs (Epic) 3.

"We've Got a Good Fire Coin'" Don Williams (Capitol) 4. "You're Something Special to Me" George Strait (MCA) 5. "Now and Forever" Anne Murray (Capitol) 6. "Once in a Blue Moon" Earl ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL, "Afleep at the Wheel." DotMCA Records Brother Ray Benson's singing voice is immediately familiar to KHIPsters and fans of western swing music as the fronting presence of Asleep at the Wheel, one of the few remaining country jazz outfits in existence. Here, on "Asleep at the Wheel," Benson slips his comfortable old shoe of a voice around some familiar material, including "Cotton-Eyed Joe" and "Deep Water," but this UP.

packs more than standard-crooning and standard crooning. The first 'Wheel disc in more than five years (they released a similarly self-titled L.P. 12 years ago same title, different record), "Asleep' contains various pieces recorded over the last four years with an armada of musicians from in and around 'Wheel-base Austin, Texas. The results of these sessions make for some generally fine listening. Ray Benson duets with 'Wheel co-lead vocalist Ms.

Chris O'Connell on John Hiatt's "This is the Way We Make a Broken Heart," and adds a corny mini-Spec tor production job. "Baby," wherein O'Connell emotes it up, also gets a taste of Benson's Spec tor-job, but a less corny one. Not one to stop at swell pairings with O'Connell, Benson teams with Willie Nelson on Nelson's "Write Your Own Song." The piece is a biting attack aimed at record executives where Nelson pulls few punches, as he sings: "I'm making you richYou were already lazy." Benson and Nelson have two honed cowboy vocal styles that go well together. Benson's "Liar's Moon" is an odd sort of splashy adult contemporary bid, but the fiddles and pedal steels throughout "Asleep' are so darn endearing, it's hard to ot like much on the album. The second side boasts "Across the Alley From the Alamo," the kind of inimitable swing fun one has come to expect form the 'Wheel.

Nobody, with the possible exception of some Gate mouth Brown bands, makes music like this. If they do, send it to me. "That's Your Red Wagon" continues the party. Benson's "Shorty" is a bit of a song noir that closes out the side. After weathering somewhere near five dozen personnel changes and several different record labels since Ray Benson put the band together in 1970, Asleep at the Wheel is still on the trail of a strong musical form.

The levels of vocalizing and musicianship remain high on this album, and Benson gives the work a refreshingly immediate production style throughout. Rosin up your beer stein for this one. DAVE GIN GOLD VARIOUS ARTISTS, "Windham Hill Records Sampler '84," Windham Hill Records The latest in Windham Hill's sporadic sampler packages contains works from a number of different artists in the label's stable, bound together by the crystalline sound quality of the recordings, and the meandering in strumental approaches of the mu-. sicians. Bassist Michael Man ring contributes the lively "Welcoming," from a forthcoming L.P.

of the same name. The piece achieves lustiness without becoming un wieldly, as Manring wrings charms from his bass within a cascade of acoustic instruments. Neither Liz Story's "Devotion" nor the Ira SteinRussel Walder piece "Engravings" pack a wallop of. emotions, but both are feeling meditations. Violinist Darol Anger has a New Age hoedown of sorts with man-dolinist Mike Marshall on "Dolphins." The group Shadowfax practically causes a sensation by using drums in their "Another Country," the title track from one of their Windham Hill albums.

Theirs is the rare driving piece on this sampler. There is, sadly, nothing from guitarist Michael Hedges in this collection, but the sheer variety of musicians who ave been tapped is some compensation. From the Japanese synthesizer group Interior, the album cuts right to hammer dulcimer player Malcolm Dalglish, whose delicate-sounding strings are in good hands with the Windham Hill production staff. Folks who like their music with no sharp edges will find many artists to invstigate in this sampler. Those who are unfamiliar with the much-touted "Windham Hill sound" will experience it here, and several of its proponents.

Those listeners who seek more than a certain moodiness, or even lugubriousness in their music, will have to look elsewhere for their needs. D.G. IRA STEIN AND RUSSEL WALDER, "Transit," Windham HiU Records The second Windham Hill L.P. from oboist Russel Walder and keyboardist Ira Stein is a gently moving work where their instruments intertwine in an extremely well-recorded setting. Stein, who studied composition and harmony with Ralph Towner, met Walder while the two were students at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

Finding that they shared a common musical vision, the two began working together, coming to reside at Windham Hill, for whom they recorded their first album in 1982. The current "Transit" contains compositions that are collaborations between Stein and Walder, as well as an about equal number of solo compositions by each musician. The thoughtful combination of instrumentalists is the constant running through all of the album's pieces, with "Marseille" tyical of their symbiotic playing. There is a certain leaning toward pop on some of the songs, with the hooks in "The Underground" and "Foreign Correspondence" provided by synthesizer programs. The latter also adds Russel Walder's vocals, percussion, and a chorus featuring a couple of the Bobs.

By The Associated Press THE following are Billboard's hot record bits as they appear In next week's issue of Billboard magazine. 1986, Billboard Publications, Inc. Reprinted with permission. HOT SINGLES 1. "Rock Me Amadeus" Falco 2.

"Kiss" Prince The Revolution (Paisley Park) Monday" Bangles (Columbia) 4. "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A." John Cougar Mellencamp (Riva) 5. "What You Need" Inxs (Atlantic) 6. "Addicted to Love" Robert Palmer (Island) 7.

"Let's Go All the Way" Sly Fox (Capitol) 8. "West End Girls" Pet Shop Boys (EMI-America) 9. "Harlem Shuffle" The Rolling Stones (Rolling Stones) 10. 'Tender Love" Force M.D.'s (Warner Boy) 11. "Secret Lovers" Atlantic Starr 12.

"Why Can't This Be Love" Van Halen (Warner Bros.) 13. "These Dreams" Heart (Capitol) 14. "What Have You Done For Me Lately" Janet Jackson 15. "Your Love" The Outfield (Columbia) 16. "I Can't Wait" Stevie Nicks (Modern) 17.

"Nikita" Elton John (Geffen) 18. "I Think It's Love" Jermaine Jackson (Arista) 19. "Take Me Home" Phil Collins (Atlantic) 20. "American Storm" Bob Seger The Silver Bullet Band (Capitol) TOP LP's 1. "Whitney Houston" Whitney Houston (Arista)-Platinum (More than 1 million units sold.) 2.

"Heart" Heart (Capitol)-Platinum 3. "Promise" Sade (Portrait)-Platinum 4. "Scarecrow" John Cougar Mellencamp (Riva)-Platinum 5. "Falco 3" Falco 6. "The Ultimate Sin" Ozzy Os-boume (CBS Associated) 7.

"Brothers in Arms" Dire Straits (Warner 8. in Pink' Soundtrack" 9. "Welcome to the Real World" Mr. Mister (RCA)-PUtinum 10. "Tbe Broadway Album" Light Meals Desserts Beer Wine Gelato Espresso Cappuccino 't Open weekdays 7:30 am to 11 pm Friday Saturday 8:30 am to Midnight I In the Courtyard Behind Bookshop Sana Cruz 1547 Pacific Garden Mall A Joint enterprise of Tandy Beal Dance Company and Bookshop Santa Cna.