Willie & The Wheel

It’s a match made in honky-tonk heaven. Outlaw-country icon Willie Nelson and Western swing band Asleep at the Wheel have teamed up for an album, “Willie and the Wheel,” which comes out today, and will kick off a joint tour February 11, 2009.
The album was conceived by legendary R&B producer Jerry Wexler, who got to hear the finished product before he passed away in August. Wexler first tried to make a Western swing album with Nelson in the ’70s, when Nelson was recording for Wexler’s label, Atlantic. The project was shelved when Nelson moved to the Columbia label, but revived after Nelson toured with Merle Haggard, Ray Price and Asleep at the Wheel in 2007.
info & album available HERE

Merle’s Marijuana Habit on Hiatus

Merle Haggard is not letting a bout with lung cancer get in the way of his ambitious touring and recording plans.
Seven weeks after the 71-year-old country legend had a lemon-sized tumor removed in what he calls “the greatest test of my fortitude,” he said on Wednesday that he expects to work harder in 2009 than he has in 20 years.
Haggard says he is singing better now that he is in the throes of kicking his daily marijuana habit.
Haggard, who once derided pot-smoking hippies in his 1969 hit “Okie From Muskogee,” got hooked on marijuana after a doctor said it was a good substitute for his Valium habit.
Reuters blurb HERE