Ryan Bingham is an amazing songwriter and performer who was born in Hobbs, New Mexico and raised in Western Rural Texas and, before you’ve heard his albums, was a bull riding cowboy who started riding in his teens and rode the rodeo circuit for several years. Fast forward this songwriter from the rodeo circuit to performing two songs – “I Don’t Know” and the song he wrote, “The Weary Kind”, produced by T Bone Burnett and which is the theme song for the soundtrack of the movie “Crazy Heart” starring Jeff Bridges. In January, 2010 he won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for “The Weary Kind” at the 2010 Golden Globe Awards. The song also won Best Original Song at the 2010 82nd Academy Awards as well as Song of the Year at the 9th Annual Americana Music Association awards. I just saw “Crazy Heart” a few weeks ago and now that I’ve seen the information on this amazing songwriter and performer, who has a small part in the film as “Tony”, I will have to watch it again!
Ryan’s third major label release called “Junky Star” on Lost Highway Records was released on August 31, 2010 and is a raw and gritty look at the darker side of life.
The title song “Junky Star” is sung in his whiskey and cigarette sounding raspy voice making him sound older than his years and is a ballad about a man who killed another and ran with a smokin’ gun to wake up on the Santa Monica pier amidst junkies and stars. It’s a deep song about addictions, regrets, losses and death.
“The Weary Kind”, the award-winning song mentioned above is about whiskey, the corner truck stop, 8-ball, guitars, and hearts on the loose and it being no place for the weary kind or a place to lose your mind. It’s about sweating out the hate and the days and nights all feeling the same with the whiskey that’s a thorn in his side and knowing he has ruined a woman’s life. It’s a look into the heart and life of a hard-core alcoholic who wants to pick up his crazy heart and give it one more try. The movie “Crazy Heart” is a dark look into the life of an aging alcoholic country music star and this song portrays the movie perfectly.
This CD has a dark vein and is comprised of slow ballads filled with lost love, death and whiskey. The lyrics are thought-provoking, the music is heady and slow and his voice is raspy and worn for his 29 years but it’s an album to sit back with a sipping drink in a quiet place and enjoy the purity of the lyrics that are uniquely Ryan Bingham’s own style.
You can find more of Ryan Bingham at www.binghammusic.com as well as MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter.
Calamity Annie – CMTT Music Contributor
www.myspace.com/calamityannie1
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