At 62 years old, Ray Benson has reached that point in life that many do in middle age. A desire to simply things sets in, to be neither seeker nor sage, and he eloquently expresses that on his new album. Yet, somehow the approach opens up a world of possibilities for Benson. Working outside the confines of the Western swing music that he spent a lifetime mastering also frees him up to experiment, which you can hear in the shifting time signatures and new grass soloists on this song.
Though Ray Benson wrote most of the material on his new CD, he found an obscure, previously unrecorded gem, co-written by the late outlaw country legend Waylon Jennings, that fits in seamlessly with the album’s theme. In a nod to his lengthy tenure in Texas music, Benson enlists the man who first lured him to Austin in the 1970s, his longtime friend and cohort Willie Nelson, to help bring the song to life.
