Bengt Nyman · CC BY 2.0

Ray Benson has spent more than fifty years keeping Western swing alive as the founder and frontman of Asleep at the Wheel, formed in 1970 and relocated to Austin in 1973 on Willie Nelson's suggestion. The band has won nine Grammy Awards across four decades, and Benson expanded into production and television, working with artists from Dale Watson to Nelson himself on 2009's Willie and the Wheel.