Album Notes

Lucky Oceans recorded his debut solo album, ‘Lucky Steels the Wheel’ in that most musical of cities – Austin, Texas – just before leaving his hometown for Australia. This even mix of instrumentals and songs is the culmination of his ten years with Asleep at the Wheel, the group he co-founded in 1970. 3 ex-Wheel members – Chris O’Connell, Leroy Preston and John Nicholas each contribute vocals and Wheel alumni; bassist Spencer Starnes, pianist Floyd Domino and drummer Fran Christina (Fabulous Thunderbirds) play beautifully, with Danny Levin contributing much throughout, playing either piano, fiddle or cello on every track. Special guest Johnny Gimble plays beautiful, inspiring fiddle on what he describes as some of his finest work.

What made the recording different, especially for that time, when pedal steel was the dominant slide instrument, is that all of Lucky’s parts were played on an assortment of lap steels – a 7 string Richenbacher bakelite model, a double 8 string Richenbacher aluminum body and a 10 string Eddie Alkire model. Western Swing is the dominant style, but in the spirit of Western Swing, Jazz, blues and south of the border genres are integrated into the whole. In this edition of the CD, Lucky adds two instrumentals recorded with his Western Australian group, the Zydecats – a version of Sleepwalk that he stretches out on and his own composition with the Gary Larsen inspired title of ‘Cows Frolic Nightly.’ In his book ‘The Best Of Country Music: A Critical and Historical Guide to the 750 Greatest Albums’, by John Morthland listed it in his Western Swing section.