(Ray Benson onstage in Craponne. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber.)
By Ruth Ellen Gruber Published: 09/26/2008
CRAPONNE SUR ARZON, France (JTA) -- Think Jews and country music and you'll probably come up with Kinky Friedman, the cigar-chomping frontman of the iconoclastic Texas Jewboys, who is also a humorist, mystery novelist and failed but flamboyant candidate for Texas governor.
The real Jewish king of country music, however, is Ray Benson, the nine-time Grammy-winning leader of the country western swing band Asleep at the Wheel.
At 6-foot-7, Ray Benson has been described as a "Jewish giant" and "the biggest Jew in country."
He literally and figuratively towers over the stage in a Stetson and fancy tooled boots, with a grizzled beard and long, thinning hair pulled back in a pony tail.
"I saw miles and miles of Texas, all the stars up in the sky," he sings in his deep, mellow baritone. "I saw miles and miles of Texas, gonna live here 'til I die."
Now 57, Benson was born in Philadelphia but has lived in Austin for 35 years. He talks with a twang, plays golf with Willie Nelson, has recorded more than 30 albums and was named Texas Musician of the Year in 2004.
By his own estimate, he is the only Jewish singing star in the country western scene.
"Kinky's not a country western singer -- he's Kinky!" Benson laughed during a conversation with JTA this summer at the annual Country Rendez-vous festival in south-central France, where Asleep at the Wheel wound up a five-nation European tour.
Unlike Friedman, however, who makes playing with stereotypes part of his in-your-face persona, Benson has -- until now -- kept his religious identity out of the limelight.
"I didn't want to be known as a Jewish country western singer; I wanted to be known as a country western singer who happens to be Jewish," he said.
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For more pictures of Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel at Craponne, click HERE
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