Ryan Bingham's music is coated with years of heartache and endless miles of dusty West Texas back roads. His youth was spent bouncing through the Southwest with his family — cattle ranchers and oil roughnecks — which struggled with money, life and hope. He left home as a teen and joined a minor-league bull-riding circuit, not for the adventure but to escape. His major-label debut, Mescalito, was recorded when he was only 25 years old, but when he wearily sings about "being a desperado in West Texas for so long," it isn't a fictional story — it's who he is.
Bingham never planned for a career in music — maybe that's why his fireside tales seem so unaffected. Steeped in the twang and folk classics he listened to on his uncle's roadhouse jukebox as a kid, he learned his first song from a mariachi-playing neighbor. He didn’t seriously pick up the guitar until later, and then it was only to pass the time between odd jobs and rodeo stops. One night in Stephenville, Texas, after years of accumulating more broken bones than money, his friends goaded him to take the stage at a local bar. The club owner said he should come in and play more often, and Bingham's life took a turn.
Some woodshedding led to rough lo-fi recordings and 2005's Wishbone Saloon. At a party he played at the invitation of venerable musician Terry Allen and his wife Jo Harvey, Bingham was introduced to Joe Ely, Guy Clark, Butch Hancock and Robert Earle Keen — the godfathers of Texas storytelling. After being accepted into "the club," Bingham was championed by Ely and friends, who helped him get signed to Lost Highway. Mescalito, a gorgeous collection of soulful pictures of life on the road and the hard-won perspective they bring, was helmed by producer/guitarist Marc Ford (The Black Crowes, Ben Harper).
Provenance: Hobbs, New Mexico
Latest Release: Mescalito (2007)
© 2008 Nigel Music Media LLC. Used by permission.
Ryan Bingham
