When I was a kid, probably around 8 to 10 years old, my dad only had three tapes in his custom van.
“Hotel California” by the Eagles, something called “Champagne Charlie” by Leon Redbone, and a live concert album of “Asleep at the Wheel.”
Every time I drove to Grandma's house or trotted to Radio Shack, those three tapes spun and the lyrics of those songs became more and more etched into my brain. And I think my mother and brother's brains are the same.
Imagine my surprise when the lineup for the 2024 Stagecoach Country Music Festival was announced and “Asleep at the Wheel” was there, scheduled to perform in the Palomino tent early Saturday morning. I had to meet them.
Instead of telling my dad, I thought I'd surprise him by FaceTiming some of the songs during the show. I quickly gave up on that idea and imagined trying to pull off such an operation with the limited audio know-how accumulated between my parents and me. Instead, I decided to take some videos and send them later.
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So I arrived at the show at 2:40pm on Saturday, ready to watch the soundtrack of my youth play before me. There was a sparse crowd in the Palomino tent due to the early start time on a hot Saturday, so I was glad to be front and center. Since it was only a 30 minute set, I thought the songs I had memorized on the cassette tape might not be played, but the first song matched.
Quick Music Lesson: Asleep at the Wheel is a Texas swing band, so in addition to vocals, guitar, keyboards, and drums, we also have a fiddle, lap steel guitar, saxophone, and an upright bass player. The music is refreshing, stylish, and lively. Granted, not all of the band members from that cassette tape performance 45 years ago were on stage Saturday, but lead singer Ray Benson was on stage, and his deep, low-pitched voice made me think It matched perfectly with the voice I heard when I was young.
When Benson began singing “Miles and Miles of Texas,” and the rest of the band sped up behind him, it was like stepping into a time machine.
Immediately and vividly, I was transported back to that particular time. I was in the back of the van on the way to my grandma's house and I felt like I probably had to poke or needle her brother in some way to separate us.
In the rush of nostalgia, I almost forgot about my videography job, but I was able to capture most of the songs on my phone. That was good for me too. That's because it was one of only two songs they played on the nine-song set on the Fateful Tapes, the other being a cover of “Route 66.”
They left some of our family's favorite songs on the cutting room floor, including “Choo-choo Ch'Boogie.” Or the songs I liked the most because they were funny and even 8-year-old me could understand the jokes. It's a song called “Last Meal” where a prisoner is on death row and the warden tells him he has one last meal before he can put him out of his misery. The prisoner then begins ordering some items that are impossible to make. “He takes two dinosaur eggs, fried in butter, easy to eat, not too greasy. Serves the mosquito's knees with black-eyed peas…” Anyway, you get the idea. The song culminates and ends with a dessert called “barbecue bricks with chocolate ice cream.”
So I couldn't stress it enough, but I was impressed. Their sound was sharp, very crisp and tight, and didn't seem to age at all. They performed a cover of “All My Exes Live in Texas,” and the now-growing audience sang along, putting a smile on Benson's face.
When I sent my mom and dad the video for “Miles and Miles of Texas,” their reply was, “Perfect!!!”
Accurate. It's a perfect life moment, from biking around Michigan with his family in 1980 to standing on a polo field in the California desert in 2024, as if no time had passed. He was one.
When Asleep at the Wheel's set ended, I started thinking about the amazing quality of music that can take you through time and space like this, but then the music stopped. Ta. I know what that means. It's time to get out of the van, you've arrived at grandma's house…and stop poking your brother.
Shad Powers is a columnist for the Desert Sun. Please contact us at shad.powers@desertsun.com.