The YouTube account that posted this today proclaims this 20-plus-year-old clip as “rare.” I see no reason to disbelieve that.
It’s Ray Benson of the western swing band Asleep At the Wheel singing “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66” with an early edition of the Dixie Chicks on the “American Music Shop” television show, which aired from 1990 to 1993.
This version of the Dixie Chicks predated lead singer Natalie Maines and included Laura Lynch and Robin Lynn Macy, who left before it hit it big. The clip is when the Dixie Chicks primarily were a bluegrass and traditional-country band, although the multi-platinum edition of the group later explored both genres considerably. Finding clips of the early Dixie Chicks on YouTube is difficult, so this is a find.
And the Dixie Chicks aren’t short so much as Benson is tall. He’s listed as 6-foot-7.
https://youtu.be/91naMntLSks
Dixie Chicks charter members Martie Maguire and Emily Robison still are with the group. Although the trio has been on a recording hiatus for years, it is embarking a major tour this summer.
Benson remains with Asleep At the Wheel after 45 years — longer than the band’s inspiration, Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys.
Asleep At the Wheel performs Bobby Troup’s “Route 66″ at every show, and Benson says it’s his favorite song. Asleep At the Wheel also embarked on a tour of major Route 66 cities some years ago. One of his band members produced CDs inspired by Route 66, “Songs of Route 66″ and “More Songs of Route 66.”
I also noticed Matt Rollings on piano in the clip, who has played on or produced hundreds of country, rock and jazz records over nearly three decades.
I think there’s no better version than the original by the King Cole Trio. The Bing Crosby/Andrews Sisters version is a good one, too: a good sing-along.
The hot fiddle player is Mark O’Connor, one of the best in the country. I Iived in Idaho in the late 1970s and most of the 1980s and I remember that he won the Old Time Fidldler’s Contest in Weiser for several years during that time. He was just a youngster then, by the way. Now he is an in-demand player for all types of fiddling and violin work.