Western Swing

NASHVILLE -- The Time Jumpers have never had a hit record, perform in the same small club where they started nine years ago and play songs that are 60 years old. And yet they're so hip the stars come out to hear them. Norah Jones, Bonnie Raitt, Sheryl Crow, Robert Plant, Reba McEntire and Vince Gill have all dropped by their standing Monday night shows at the Station Inn, an unassuming little stone building with plywood floors and mismatched tables and chairs.

President Obama plans to set off Wednesday on a Western tour passing through one of the reddest states in the union, where he will try to turn the Keystone pipeline story into a positive tale about his overall energy policy. On the way to Oklahoma - the starting point of the southern half of the controversial pipeline - Obama plans to highlight the approval of dozens of oil pipelines during his time in office. Although the full Keystone line from Canada to Texas failed to get a permit earlier this year, the company is moving forward with the southern portion.

"This is what Western swing is all about," Asleep at the Wheel leader Ray Benson said Monday night at the Crazy Horse as the band tore into the infectious instrumental "Red Wing." Actually, the entire 18-song, 90-minute set was what Western swing is all about--even though the material ranged from Bob Wills classics to a Tony Bennett ballad ("I Wanna Be Around") and a rock 'n' roll car song ("Hot Rod Lincoln").

A president's time counts for something, so when Barack Obama goes somewhere aides make sure it's for a good reason. Or even a few good reasons. His three-day Western swing is a fine example. There's a policy aspect to the trip, a campaign component, and a broader political dynamic at work. The first two were easy to spot. Obama packed six fundraising events into his swing through Nevada, California and Colorado. Campaign officials won't release the fundraising totals yet, but it's safe to say  that when he flies home Wednesday he'll have added millions of dollars to his campaign coffers.

The music was consistently clean and lilting. And swapping lead vocals on some tunes, harmonizing on others and doing both on still others, the trio sang smoothly and expressively. Swapping lead vocals on some tunes, harmonizing on others and doing both on still others, the Riders' singing was smooth, expressive and pretty.

Along with the grit that got washed out of country music when it was watered down by "crossover appeal" in the '70s, country's longtime emphasis on instrumental prowess also seemed to get lost in the flood. Outside of Ricky Scaggs, the indomitable Merle Haggard and a handful of others, the notion that axes can speak louder than words has largely gone ignored in these past two decades.

"Ladies and gentlemen, western swing ain't dead--it's Asleep at the Wheel." That's the line used at concerts to introduce the group Asleep at the Wheel, and it's not far from the truth. For nearly three decades, guitarist-vocalist Ray Benson and whoever happens to be in the group with him at the time (there have been more than 80 personnel changes throughout the years) have been preserving and revitalizing western swing.

"This one's gnarly," says a minor character in "Western Swing," of her loopy artwork. If not for the honest spirit of the book, so might readers conclude of the pileup of loco events in Tim Sandlin's second novel. ("Sex and Sunsets" is his first.) Don't trust an old flame with your daughter here, and watch out for the shooting: It may or may not be in the buffoonish Old West fashion. Death touches down like a mean twister, fast and senseless.

Often something's so old it's new again. Just look at the growing popularity of American roots music on the so-called hot, new country scene. West Coast swing dancers love to execute their moves to the slower rhythms of crossover R & B tunes. And traces of jazz and even Dixieland music fuel the flashing feet of people dancing East Coast swing and its variants--jitterbug, aggie (fast) swing, Lindy hop and country swing.

Western swing, as Asleep at the Wheel's Ray Benson admits, is not a dominant strain in country music. "It's like a footnote," he says, over the phone from his native Pennsylvania. Funny thing is, even though western swing is the sort of thing people might think would by now be long forgotten, somehow the music endures. About 70 years have passed since Texan Bob Wills formed his first "Fiddle Band" and began to fuse western-style fiddle music with jazzy, urban swing.

Willie Nelson's famous face is tanned and weathered. White whiskers increasingly dominate his two-day stubble, and streaks of gray color the waist-length braid trailing down his back. The country music legend is sitting on a bench seat inside a tour bus parked behind the bullpen at Diamond Stadium in Lake Elsinore, waiting to take the stage at this, one stop on a summer tour of minor-league baseball parks with Bob Dylan and John Mellencamp. He displays a youthful vitality that many younger men would envy.

NASHVILLE -- The Time Jumpers have never had a hit record, perform in the same small club where they started nine years ago and play songs that are 60 years old. And yet they're so hip the stars come out to hear them. Norah Jones, Bonnie Raitt, Sheryl Crow, Robert Plant, Reba McEntire and Vince Gill have all dropped by their standing Monday night shows at the Station Inn, an unassuming little stone building with plywood floors and mismatched tables and chairs.

President Bush promised victory in Iraq and safer schools while addressing standing-room-only crowds Wednesday at fundraisers in Arizona and Colorado. The appearances wrapped up his three-day swing through four Western states. Bush told a crowd of 450 at a morning fundraiser for Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) that winning the war in Iraq was key to protecting the country from terrorists. "You'll hear the Democrats say, 'Well, it's a distraction in the war on terror.'

For those looking down on his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the name Spade Cooley probably doesn't mean very much. He was a real-life star once, known as "The King of Western Swing" back in the '40s and '50s, when he led a 30-piece band, was a fiddle virtuoso and hosted his own television variety show. Now perhaps his greatest claim to fame is an ignominious one: He's believed to be the only convicted killer with a star on the Walk of Fame. On Feb.

Nobody remotely familiar with the veteran western swing band Asleep at the Wheel was surprised last summer when the group released "Ride With Bob," an all-star tribute to the king of western swing, Bob Wills. But even big Wheel Ray Benson didn't expect what happened last month when Grammy nominations were announced: "Ride With Bob" came away with six, more than any other country group or album. "I was really hoping to get maybe three, when they all started pouring in," Benson, 49, says.

Western swing, as Asleep at the Wheel's Ray Benson admits, is not a dominant strain in country music. "It's like a footnote," he says, over the phone from his native Pennsylvania. Funny thing is, even though western swing is the sort of thing people might think would by now be long forgotten, somehow the music endures. About 70 years have passed since Texan Bob Wills formed his first "Fiddle Band" and began to fuse western-style fiddle music with jazzy, urban swing.

Ray Benson met the legendary Bob Wills just once, in 1973 during Wills' final recording session. They exchanged a brief hello before Wills went on to his hotel, where he suffered a stroke that left him in a coma until his death two years later. "Spooky," says Benson. Twenty years later, Benson's group Asleep at the Wheel has geared up to revive the spirit of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, whose Western swing music was the hottest thing in the Southwest throughout the '40s.

In ways subtle and blunt, Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton is driving home a very specific message: He is not one of them , one of those tax-and-spend Democrats tarred and feathered so successfully by a generation of Republicans. His method can be substantive. Campaigning in Washington state Saturday, he ticked off a series of issues, from welfare reform to taxes and trade, on which his position differs with traditional Democrats. Or he can take a symbolic approach.

Credit this Nashville band with trying to inject some character and idiosyncrasy into country music instead of recycling the usual commercial formulas. On its second studio album, BR5-49 continues to page through the history book, applying solid musicianship and a lively, infectious spirit to honky-tonk, rockabilly, and some stylishly played western swing.

For a moment, let's forget the raging resurgence of that bygone swing dance era. Sure, the Derby in Los Feliz is a happening joint with its swing lessons, glamour-puss fashion and Lindy-Hop music. But, deep in the heart of Texas, some 60 years ago, another kind of swing was jumpin' and jivin'--western swing: an all but forgotten sound, a blend of back-porch fiddling, lap steel guitars, yodeling and, yes, even mariachi. Like a Texas tornado, Duncan McLean's witty travelogue "Lone Star Swing" (W.