Asleep at the Auction

Asleep at the Wheel's Ray Benson auctions off guitars, cars, and music memorabilia

Benson's collection includes everything from posters to cars, and several unique guitars.

Photo courtesy of Burley Auction

There’s no stopping some collectors, who make historical gear and other oddities a lifelong pursuit. Ray Benson, frontman of the longtime Texas-based Western swing band Asleep at the Wheel, has a looser grasp on some of his items.

“After 50 plus years of collecting, I realized it’s time for me to clean house and let someone else enjoy them for a while,” said Benson in a press release. “I wouldn’t say that I became a collector on purpose,” he later added.

In particular, he’s talking about memorabilia, custom guitars, classic cars, and even a custom motorcycle. New Braunfels-based Burley Auction is in charge of the sale, which will occur both in person in New Braunfels and online on October 15. So each item’s true value shines through, Benson will walk onlookers through his collection, telling stories from his career since 1970.

Collectibles are a great chance at name dropping, which in this case calls to memory connections with Willie Nelson, George Strait, Dolly Parton, and Commander Cody, among others. This is as interesting for an Asleep at the Wheel fan as any buyer who loves Texas and its nonconformist entertainment history.

“I’ve accumulated a vast collection of some really cool stuff! From the bay area music scene of the early ‘70s, to the Austin ‘Cosmic Cowboy’ movement” Benson said. “Hats, boots, posters, cars and guitars!”

Ray Benson Benson will auction off custom guitars, classic cars, and more on October 15.Photo by Mike Shore

In addition to connecting people with items that make them happy or teach them something, this auction benefits the Texas Dance Hall Preservation, which maintains antique gathering places across the state including two in Texas: the Austin Son’s of Hermann Mixed Lodge and the Broken Spoke.

The auction couldn’t have come at a more nostalgic time for Asleep at the Wheel, in the wake of its album Half A Hundred Years, released on October 1. As usual, the band will be at the Austin City Limits Festival (as one of its more stable offerings year-to-year) supporting the 19-track new release. Iconic musicians from the genre join the record as guests, plus three original band members who lend their talents for the first time in 40 years.

Asleep at the Wheel will play with the Plano Symphony Orchestra at Richardson's Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts Richardson on October 22.

Auction registration details and a catalog of items up for grabs are available at BurleyAuction.com.

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Good as gold

Dallas gymnast Skye Blakely wins gold at 2026 world championships

Day 7 - Artistic Gymnastics World Championships Rotterdam 2026

Photo by Adam Pretty/Getty Images

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ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — American Skye Blakely soared to the women's all-around gold at the world gymnastics championships on Friday, putting together four stellar routines as other top competitors faltered.

The 21-year-old's total of 55.733 included a dazzling set on uneven bars and a stoic and steady performance on balance beam and no major form breaks or falls, giving the Dallas native a moment of redemption after bids to make the 2020 and 2024 U.S. Olympic teams ended due to injury.

Blakely was born in Dallas and lives and trains in Frisco, at the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy (WOGA); she's also a student-athlete at the University of Florida.

Blakely broke into tears when she walked off the podium at the end of her floor exercise in the final rotation, her long and painful journey with an unforgiving sport hitting a high note that seemed far away during lengthy rehabs that taxed both her mind and her body.

Liudmila Roschina earned silver at 55.199. Ke Qinqin of China took bronze at 55.032.

Algerian Kaylia Nemour's bid to become the first gymnast from Africa to win an all-around title at worlds ended with a fourth-place finish. The 19-year-old's finals got off to a rough start in her first rotation when her feet didn't land squarely on the springboard while vaulting, forcing her to do a simpler vault that cost her valuable points.

While Nemour recovered spectacularly thanks in large part to an uneven bars routine that is one of the hardest routines done on any apparatus by any gymnast — male or female — in the world, it wasn't quite enough to reach the podium.

American Claire Pease's hopes of joining Blakely on the medal stand ended when she hopped off beam on her way to a seventh-place finish. Pease, a Sunnyvale native, also trains at WOGA in Frisco.

Blakely and Pease were competing two days after the U.S. saw its long run of gold medals in the team finals at worlds end with a second-place finish to resurgent China. That up-and-down night included Blakely failing to get credit for a connection during her beam routine that cost the Americans nearly a point in a meet where they missed out on gold by a fraction of that.

There were no such issues this time around. Blakely headed to beam atop the leaderboard after an excellent start on vault followed by a bars routine that's pretty good in its own right.

Still, beam is something different. And this time there were no missed connections and barely a wobble. Her score of 14.200 kept her in front and turned her floor exercise largely into a victory lap.

The tears after she saluted the judges were real. So were the ones when her spot atop the sport became official about 15 minutes later.

Blakely then draped the American flag over her back while posing for the cameras becoming the ninth U.S. woman — and sixth this century — to win a world all-around crown.

While the picture figures to get considerably more crowded in the next two years ahead of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, Blakely's perseverance and talent have thrust her back into the conversation.

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