Ryan Bingham with the Texas Gentlemen

One Liner: Rough-edged voice in between Steve Earle and Paul Westerberg making great rock-tinged Americana

Wikipedia Genre: Americana, Roots Rock
Home: Hobbs, NM and Houston, TX

Sunday

Thoughts: Bingham is an interesting dude, in that he's sort of had multiple layers over time.  His 2007 album Mescalito has some of his most popular tunes on it and sounds like a lot of fun.  But he also wrote the main song ("The Weary Kind") for that Jeff Bridges movie, Crazy Heart.  And then more recently he was a very good character in that general terrible Yellowstone soap opera that got all the Republicans in my life hot and bothered.  That's a weird string of events, in my opinion.

Here is a clip of him in the show, playing for the boys in the bunkhouse.

I like that the "happy" song involves killing a man and being buried alive.  That show had some amazing scenery, but some godawful storylines.

I got to see him one time, when he was part of that BS Willie Nelson Mega-False-Advertising-Roadshow thing, where they released a poster showing a pile of great bands and artists playing, and I immediately snapped up tickets.

Does that poster say anywhere on there that you only get four of those artists?  No, dear reader, it does not.  That poster absolutely leads you to believe that you are getting Willie, Stapleton, Sturgill, Avetts, Rateliff, Bingham, Lucinda, and more.  Totally worth a $200 ticket!  So not only was I pissed when I realized we only got four artists, it also sucked because August 22, 2021 was approximately 198 degrees in Austin, Texas.  So, poor Bingham took the stage to a 3/4 empty amphitheater and proceeded to dutifully jam through a solo show while the crowd hid in the shaded areas chugging beer.  I honestly think I saw two songs. 

He was born in Hobbs, New Mexico, but he moved to Midland and then to Houston after that.  According to the Internet, his mom bought him a guitar when he was 16, but it sat in his closet for a year.  Around then he hitchhiked to Laredo to see if he could get a job with his father who was living out there, and he took the guitar with him.  A neighbor taught him a classical mariachi song called "La Malaguena".  Google translate literally will not translate that word. Anyway, he later moved to Stephenville to attend Tarleton State and ride with their rodeo team and play some gigs.  How bad ass is that?  Hitchhiked?  Learned Mariachi song?  Rode on a college rodeo team?  This guy is the shizznit.  After more cool things, he got spotted by a member of the Black Crowes while playing to an otherwise almost empty room in Fort Worth, who offered to help him cut an album.

Like I mentioned before, his 2007 debut album was his biggest hit - three of his top four tracks on Spotify are all from that disc.  This disc was produced by Marc Ford, the guitarist from the Crowes.  Which is cool.  At the same time, he was still riding on the rodeo circuit.  I think my favorite tune is the unbridled rip of "Bread & Water," but at 15.7 million streams it is dwarfed by "Southside of Heaven."  77.3 million streams.

Also a good tune, more of a traditional country track.  "Sunrise" from that album is his second-most streamed at 46.5 million.  The start actually sounds like a Pat Green song to me.  This whole album is really enjoyable.

After that, he kept churning out albums - 2009's Roadhouse Sun, 2010's Junky Star, 2012's Tomorrowland, 2015's Fear and Saturday Night (wait, what is that phrase Zach Bryan uses a bunch at the start of his new album? Fear and Fridays - did he crib part of that from this title?), 2019's American Love Song, and then 2023's Watch Out for the Wolf.  But none of them hit as big as that debut album, except for the Crazy Heart songs.

He has a different look in that video, less road-worn cowboy and more of a coffee shop hipster.  But the combination of finger-picking and those lyrics is just beautiful.  That movie was fuckin' brutal.

The new album is interesting, because it almost has a pop sound to it.  I'm listening to it right now for the first time and the first song has a persistent drumming that feels like it outside any country sound I know.  And then the second track has these ghostly guitar meanderings behind the acoustic that make it seem a little psych.  Definitely a departure from what the Yellowstone lovers are going to expect.  "Internal Intermission" throws in some instrumental rock and roll.  "River of Love" sounds totally like Paul Westerberg.  Oh great, now "This Life" now also sounds like Westerberg.  Is this something other people are saying?  I'm stuck with this in my head now.  Here is that album opener, the top track with 2.1 million streams.  "Where My Wild Things Are."

Is that even a real drummer?  Sounds kind of like a drum track instead.  Good groove though, and the whistling works.

He did a 2023 cover with the Texas Gentlemen of The Toadies' song "Possum Kingdom" that sounds relatively terrible.  I was excited when I heard the opening notes because that whole album rules, but this is close to being awful.  His voice can't hit any of the notes and the band sounds like a junior high School of Rock class struggling to plod through their first performance for Grandma.  Literally could not finish that song.

2019's American Love Song is good stuff, but again, now I can't stop thinking of him as country Paul Westerberg.  Dammit!  "Lover Girl" super sounds like PW.  This is annoying now.  I'm also getting Wilco vibes from some of these tunes.  I could totally hear them playing "Situation Station."

I want to put these tunes into my more permanent rotation - I think his whole vibe is really cool.