More People Really Should Know About: Ryan Bingham

“What’s this?” I hear the well-informed readers of AMA UK say, “a feature saying More People Should Really Know About …. Ryan Bingham”. Really? Well yes, because despite holding multiple awards and his many TV and film appearances, this charismatic and multi-talented performer is comparatively unsung in these islands. Putting this theory to the test, the names Ron Sexsmith or Gillian Welch produce instant recognition among one’s music-loving acquaintances. Among the company gathered for a recent Jason Isbell show, however, the name Ryan Bingham met with several blank looks.

How is this possible? The Texan troubadour won an Oscar, Golden Globe, Critics’ Choice and Grammy for his signature song ‘The Weary Kind’, co-written with T-Bone Burnett. Many will have seen the film ‘Crazy Heart’, on whose soundtrack the song appears and which in 2010-11 garnered those awards. Add to that his roles as Walker in the hit western series ‘Yellowstone’ and Sergeant Malloy in the film ‘Hostiles’ alongside his many appearances on the Jay Leno and David Letterman TV shows and the impression begins to form of a latter-day Kris Kristofferson, whose obituaries revealed a man of extraordinary talents and versatility. As unlikely as it seems, he had studied at Oxford, gained a Boxing ‘Blue’ and performed all kinds of menial jobs before eventually finding his niche in the pantheon of greats.

Like Kristofferson and with Texan roots, Bingham too had sporting prowess, working as a professional bull rider in rodeos and even writing his best-known ‘Southside of Heaven’ in a trailer house. His early life was certainly colourful and not without its fair share of tragedy. With a mother who died of alcoholism and a father lost to suicide, it would be surprising if these events did not inform his songwriting. Even his singing voice bears testament to the hard years he spent as a child, which are often described engagingly during his live shows. Released while still in his 20’s, the 2007 album ‘Mescalito’ sounds like it comes from a much older man.

I first came across Bingham performing at the Hard Rock Calling show in Hyde Park in 2008. With an early afternoon spot in a side tent, the audience was sparse but the quality of the songs and performance easily won us over. By April 2019 he was filling the Union Chapel for a superb solo show, returning a few weeks later with full band to rock out Highbury’s The Garage, well-reviewed here. Then, a few weeks before the pandemic in January 2020, an appearance at a church in Brighton. Not only was I surprised to find this was indeed THE Ryan Bingham but even more so that he was only playing a support slot. Now it turned out that the main act was The Milk Carton Kids and the whole evening was an absolute dream of a show, but the feeling remained that the diffident Bingham deserves the acclaim accorded to many artists of far less talent. In his country at least, Bingham is a stellar act, recently releasing a terrific album “Live at Red Rocks”, the iconic 10,000 seat amphitheatre in Colorado.

There’s just too much to say about Ryan Bingham. Spanning soul, rhythm and blues, rock and americana, Bingham’s music is authentic, wild, plaintive and political. A virtuoso guitarist, he plays distinctive and personalised instruments and whether he performs solo or with a scorchingly good band, it is always with total commitment. With millions of streams for his music, Ryan Bingham may well be in no need of such a feature as this but if it can help to foster a wider following on this side of the Atlantic then it will have served its purpose.