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"Both Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel are in prime form on this magnificent effort." - Nashville City Paper
"Grade A" - Philadelphia Daily News
"This is the kind of record that makes people want to become real musicians in a way that today’s music doesn’t. Five Stars." - The 9513
"Bright, playful and exploding with verve, 'Willie and the Wheel' is one of the first great albums of 2009." - Washington Post
"The set is so authentic that one almost feels guilty listening to it on modern speakers instead of seated around the old Victrola." - Billboard
"Asleep at the Wheel's take on Western swing should be especially interesting to fans of early 20th-century American popular music. Their fidelity to the source material means that traces of jazz swing, ragtime and Dixieland are preserved as if in amber, sounding much as they did in the '30s and '40s." - Washington Times
"This is string-heavy, boot-tapping stuff, music that was once a fixture of dance halls in Tulsa, Fort Worth, and elsewhere. No, western swing certainly ain’t dead, as Asleep at the Wheel likes to remind us. In fact, it sounds as lively as ever." - Garden and Gun
"Superb vocals and excellent instrumental backing." - Roughstock
"Nelson's easygoing tenor sounds smoother than ever with by the band's barbershop-quartet-style backing on songs like the opening "Hesitation Blues" and "Corrine Corrina," and when they're not coming together in high harmony, gentle violin swoops and washing pedal steel keep things bucking and shuffling." - Galesburg Register-Mail
"It's hard to listen to the album and not have a smile on your face." - Listen.com
"...as comfortable and welcoming as a familiar old leather jacket." - All Music Guide
Jerry Wexler's long-overdue concept album takes Willie Nelson back to his musical roots. Teamed up with Ray Benson and the master musicianship of Asleep at the Wheel, this instant classic celebrates the timeless appeal of a most unique and spirited American music genre. Fall in love with Western Swing...again.
Bismeaux Records is VERY pleased to announce that Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel have teamed up to release an album TODAY. A concept thirty years in the making, Willie & The Wheel is a collection of classic western swing songs hand-picked by the late Jerry Wexler.
"Jerry wanted us to do this album and I'm glad we got to do it for him, “says Willie Nelson. “And that he heard it before he passed on."
