Brennen Leigh featuring Asleep at the Wheel Obsessed with the West LP

"I've been obsessed with western swing since I was a kid, and it's always been an influence, but my records in the past have ranged from bluegrass to hard country to folk, so I've never fully explored it," says genre-busting Fargo-born, Austin-incubated, Nashville resident Brennen Leigh, whose new collaboration with the kings of modern-day western swing, Asleep at the Wheel, Obsessed with the West, is a showcase not just for the Bob Wills fans, but for anyone who's ever curled up with Loretta Lynn, Hank Sr., Cindy Walker, Billie Holiday, or Willie Nelson.

On twelve all-original songs, Leigh's supple winking voice and multi-instrumental fluency, her interplay with Ray Benson, and the undeniable chops of the Wheel serve up a treat on Leigh's seventh album. With cameos from Emily Gimble and Katie Shore, and all the players getting their moments in the sun, Leigh - a two-time winner of the Texas Music Awards Best Female Vocalist award - demonstrates on the terrific jump rhythm and blues "Comin' In Hot" and the lonesome cowboy musing of "Riding Off onto Sunset Boulevard" why Rodney Crowell and Lee Ann Womack have recorded her songs. Obsessed with the West is a celebration of music for music's sake, not just an exercise in looking back on times gone by.