ryan bingham tour ireland

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• November 9, 2012 Setlist

Ryan Bingham Setlist at Whelan's, Dublin, Ireland

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Tour: Tomorrowland Tour Tour statistics Add setlist

• Sunshine Play Video
• Western Shore Play Video
• Hallelujah ( Ryan Bingham & The Dead Horses  song) ( Ryan solo acoustic ) Play Video
• The Weary Kind ( Ryan Bingham & The Dead Horses  song) ( Ryan solo acoustic ) Play Video
• Southside of Heaven Play Video

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6 activities (last edit by ExecutiveChimp , 4 Sep 2016, 15:50 Etc/UTC )

Songs on Albums

• Sunshine (2)
• Hallelujah by Ryan Bingham & The Dead Horses
• The Weary Kind by Ryan Bingham & The Dead Horses
• Western Shore
• Southside of Heaven

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Whelan's

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Ryan Bingham Gig Timeline

• Oct 24 2012 Majestic Theatre Madison, WI, USA Add time Add time
• Oct 25 2012 Vic Theatre Chicago, IL, USA Add time Add time
• Nov 09 2012 Whelan's This Setlist Dublin, Ireland Add time Add time
• Nov 13 2012 Manchester Academy 3, University of Manchester Students' Union Manchester, England Add time Add time
• Nov 15 2012 Scala London, England Add time Add time

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This week’s best pop and rock gigs: From Ryan Bingham to Laurent Garnier

Plus: caravan palace, dj seinfeld, xylouris white, waterparks and the teskey brothers.

Ryan Bingham: expect songs from his most recent album, American Love Song

Saturday, January 18th 

Ryan Bingham Róisín Dubh, Galway; roisindubh.net Cyprus Avenue, Cork on January 20th; eventbrite.ie Straddling the hybrid areas of roots/rock and Americana, New Mexico-born and Los Angeles-based Ryan Bingham came to major prominence about ten years ago when he collaborated with producer/musician T Bone Burnett on the soundtrack for the 2009 movie Crazy Heart (which starred Jeff Bridges as a luckless country singer). One of his songs (The Weary Kind) subsequently nabbed Academy, Golden Globe and Critics' Choice Best Song awards, leading Bingham to enjoy a sizeable boost in profile and popularity. His most recent album, American Love Song, was released almost a year ago, so expect tunes from that record as well as new tunes he has hiding up his shirt sleeve. TCL

Happy birthday Dolly! Kino, Cork; uticket.ie On the eve of Dolly Parton turning 74, the Kino is celebrating all things Backwoods Barbie. With doors opening at 7pm, things will kick off with a screening of 9 to 5, Parton-centric games and tomfoolery, a quick dash of line dancing and some very special guests performing songs from her back catalogue that spans 50 (ish) years. Finishing off the night is a DJ set from the one and only Western Girls, the "unfettered DJ collective" that puts fun at the forefront of everything they do. LB

Tuesday, January 21st

Caravan Palace Vicar St, Dublin;  ticketmaster.ie Formed as a trio when, as session musicians, they were recruited to create a soundtrack for a porn movie, Paris quartet Caravan Palace sway and swing their way between electronic and jazz music. With influences ranging from Daft Punk and Vitalic to Django Reinhardt and Lionel Hamilton, for over ten years the band have achieved considerable success outside their native France. Their latest album, Chronologic, will no doubt be ripped apart for tunes, but three other records will join the party – ready and willing to be associated with the band's good electro-swing vibes. TCL

Caravan Palace

Insomnium Dolan's, Limerick; dolans.yapsody.com Whelan's, Dublin on January 22nd ; whelanslive.com From "beyond the vast forests of eastern Finland", Insomnium formed over 20 years ago as a bunch of teenage metalheads out for a laugh and loud music. Since then, the band have produced a singular Scandinavian form of music that references not only the roots of fierce death metal but also (they note on their website) "Finnish melancholy, drawing inspiration from some of the bleakest tales, lyrics and poems of the north." The band rarely visit Ireland, so this is a golden opportunity for fans. TCL

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Wednesday, January 22nd

Petrol Girls Whelan's Upstairs, Dublin; whelanslive.com Dolan's, Limerick on January 23rd; dolans.yapsody.com Formed in London eight years ago (but now living in Austria), this politically motivated, blister-popping post-hardcore band really know how to get under the skin, stay there, and agitate. Last year's album, Cut & Stitch – their second – was praised by many for its ambitious musical and lyrical flourishes, while singer Ren Aldridge garnered much admiration for the way in which she combined rage and deliberation in equal measure. This year will present new challenges and, perhaps, directions, as original co-founding member Liepa Kuraité left the band at the end of 2019. TCL

DJ Seinfeld Seven Bar, Galway; eventbrite.ie Cyprus Avenue, Cork on January 24th; eventbrite.ie 39/40, Dublin on January 25th; eventbrite.ie Swedish DJ Armand Jakobsson, aka DJ Seinfeld, is hitting the road and taking the country by storm – or a mild gale, at least – with his Irish tour. After some fast-paced and truly energetic sets at the likes of Forbidden Fruit, Electric Picnic, Life Festival and sold out shows in Galway, Dublin and Cork, he's back once again to spread the joy with some feel-good sets built around house music that comes with a fuzzy edge. LB

Felice Brothers Limelight 2, Belfast; ticketmaster.ie Whelan's, Dublin on January 23rd; whelanslive.com From the Catskill Mountains to Greenwich Village, and subsequently all across the world, the Felice Brothers have become quite skilled in the art of extemporisation. Aligning their music with folk-rock, Americana and roots, there is (perhaps unavoidably) a strong whiff of The Band here, but the musicians negotiate their way around the genres in a very persuasive (and sometimes political) manner. Their latest album, Undress, continues their path from ragamuffin subway performers to smartly dishevelled professionals. Go see – highly recommended. TCL

Felice Brothers

Thursday, January 23

Xylouris White Black Box, Belfast; cqaf.com   Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny on January 24th;  regionalculturalcentre.com Whelan's, Dublin on January 25th; whelanslive.com If you're looking for something that little bit different from guitar shreds or techno bounces, then we guarantee that Xylouris White are just the ticket. The clues are in the name, which is a surname composite of Georgios Xylouris and Jim White. The former is a Crete-born multi-instrumentalist that has rarely strayed from his traditional roots; the latter is an Australian drummer best known, perhaps, for his work with The Dirty Three. Disparate on paper they may be but in a live setting the pair fuse to create music that Rolling Stone writer David Fricke has described as having "the empathy and elevation of saxophonist John Coltrane's iconic duets." TCL

Xylouris White. Photograph: Manolis Mathioudakis

The Midnight Disco with Donna Leake Yamamori Tengu, Dublin; eventbrite.ie Going strong since 2016, the Midnight Disco is all about showcasing local and international talent that can sometimes be overlooked, with a heavy emphasis on electronic music of all varieties. For their first party of 2020, they've called in London DJ, NTS radio resident and Boiler Room regular Donna Leake to select the tunes. With a massively versatile taste in music, she plays songs from far and wide to suit the mood around her. Support on the night comes from Kilkenny local Eloise. LB

Friday, January 24

Waterparks Academy, Dublin; ticketmaster.ie Waterfront Studio, Belfast on January 25th; waterfront.co.uk Stop the punk/pop clocks! Texas band Waterparks cite their primary influences as Sum 41, Fall Out Boy, Green Day, Blink-182, Good Charlotte, and My Chemical Romance. It's little surprise, then, that the band – which formed almost ten years ago – have close management ties with Good Charlotte twins, Joel and Benji Madden, and musical associations with Mikey Way, co-founder of My Chemical Romance. Now three albums into their career, Waterparks tie up the loose ends of various alt.rock genres and neatly present them to the listener. It's nothing you haven't heard before, of course, but the clincher here is the undercurrent of bubble-gum pop melodies that invade the tunes and run riot over them. Nice. TCL

Laurent Garnier Jam Park, Dublin; eventbrite.ie French DJ Laurent Garnier has been a constant on the house and techno scene from the last 25 years. Cutting his teeth in Manchester during the Madchester heydays of the 1980s, he found spiritual homes behind the decks in New York, Chicago and even Cork's Sir Henry's with his impassioned sets. No stranger to our shores or our festivals by any means, this will be his first visit to District 8's new home in Jam Park. Join him for a masterclass in consistency. LB

Saturday, January 25

The Teskey Brothers Academy, Dublin; mcd.ie/artists/the-teskey-brothers You could be forgiven for presuming that the Teskey Brothers originate from Memphis, Tennessee and that because of this their music is soaked in the torrents of soul and blues you'll hear from Stax Records catalogues. You would be forgiven, but you would also be mistaken, as this soul/blues outfit formed in Yara Valley, outside Melbourne. Founded in 2008 and named after two brothers (Josh and Sam Teskey), last year they signed to Glassnote Records, one of America's most high-profile independent labels, and romped home with three awards (out of seven nominations) in their country's ARIA Music Awards. In keeping with such an increasingly accomplished output, this show is sold out. Special guest is Melbourne soul singer, Wilsn, who we suggest you check out. TCL

The Teskey Brothers

CHC & PX Music Present: Hazey Haze – Is Mise Tour Plugd, Cork; facebook.com Limerick rapper Hazey Haze first stepped onto the scene as part of Same D4Ence, the hip-hop trio that have opened up for acts like Ghostface Killah, Nelly and Beardyman. Solo since 2018, he released Spillin' Beans, The Drug and Somewhere in Ireland as part of an EP series through PX Music. Is Mise is his latest LP and in his own words, "If ye don't get to see a show of the Is Mise tour, you're missing out on Irish history. Facts". LB

The Scratch Live in De Barra's, Cork; eventbrite.ie If there's one band you need to keep a check on this year, it's the Dublin-Cork trad-rock four-piece The Scratch. Having released their debut EP The Whole Buzz last year, they're creating an even bigger buzz on the live circuit. Their set at Other Voices in December was considered the set of the weekend. Initially scheduled for December 6th, this is the new date for De Barra's and if you haven't ingested The Whole Buzz yet, we implore you to dig in. LB

Deno Academy 2, Dublin; ticketmaster.ie Known to his parents as Deno Michael Mebrahitu, this 17-year-old British songwriter/rapper really came to prominence a couple of years ago when Stormzy not only retweeted one of his videos but also had him as a contributor on his debut studio album, Gang Signs & Prayer. There is more to Deno than music (he's an actor and is involved with a global fashion brand), yet it's clear he has sidelined most of his non-music activities for some serious outings in hip-hop, R&B and Afro-swing. Most definitely one to pay attention to. TCL

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Catch the Yellowstone Star Live on Tour!

No longer the best-kept secret in country & western, Ryan Bingham is bigger than ever in 2024, and he’s coming to a venue near you soon! Tickets for all upcoming concerts are available now, so you can catch the singer, songwriter, and TV star performing songs like “Southside of Heaven,” “Why Me,” and “The Weary Kind” live at a venue near you. But if you don’t hurry, someone will beat you to the best sets in your budget!

So don’t wait another second. Click the links below for more details, and score your Ryan Bingham Tickets right away!

Friday, April 19th, 2024 8:00 PM

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Two Step Inn: Cody Johnson, Ryan Bingham & Colter Wall - Saturday San Gabriel Park - TX Georgetown, TX

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Spring Revelry: Turnpike Troubadours, Ryan Bingham & Trampled By Turtles Memorial Balloon Field Indianola, IA

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Fairwell Festival: Billy Strings, CAAMP & Brandi Carlile - 3 Day Pass Deschutes County Fairgrounds Expo Center Redmond, OR

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FairWell Festival: CAAMP, Ryan Bingham, The Texas Gentlemen & Leann Rimes (Time: TBD) - Saturday Deschutes County Fairgrounds Expo Center Redmond, OR

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Interview with Ryan Bingham

Ahead of his show at the out to lunch festival in belfast, folk and tumble caught up with ryan bingham to talk politics, performances, and upcoming plans..

Ryan Bingham is an American singer/songwriter who defies easy classification. His career has seen incredible highs and lows. Shortly after winning an Oscar and a Grammy for 'The Weary kind', theme song to the Jeff Bridges film Crazy Heart, he faced the tragic deaths of his parents.

His recent album, ‘American Love Song’ sees his distinctive voice ruminating on the personal and the political, in what for many, including this reviewer, is his finest release yet. Preparing for an Irish and UK tour, Ryan took time off to talk to Folk and Tumble.

FT: You have played Ireland before, Belfast too, but with a band. What can the Belfast crowd expect of you as a solo artist?

RB: This trip it’s just going to be me and an acoustic guitar. All of the songs I have written have started out this way, so they can expect to hear these songs in their original form as well as some stories that inspired them.

FT:  You don’t neatly fit into a label. You are seen as too indie and have too much of a rock sensibility to be really country and seen by many to be too country, to be rock.  Are you happy not to fit ‘neatly’ into a ‘label’ or ‘box’?

RB: I’m okay with that. I have many influences that cross all over those genres of music. I can only write and play what I feel and hear. Things I write about don’t always look the same or sound the same, or even come from the same place. I like to use a variety of instruments and sounds to translate whatever emotion I want to invoke within the story.

FT:  After the success of ‘The Weary kind’ , was there a pressure on you to produce more of the same kind of material?

RB: There was a bit but most of the pressure was to be more mainstream. ‘The Weary Kind’ mostly got attention because of the movie. It wasn’t a pop song. At the time, a radio programmer actually told me they couldn’t play it because there was too much mandolin on the track. I had lot of people around me trying to make a quick buck.

FT: The success came at a difficult time for you in your own personal life with your parent’s deaths in difficult circumstances. You were able to write about such tragic events, particularly on the ‘Tomorrowland’ album. How hard are those songs to sing each night to a new crowd of strangers?

RB: It can be difficult at times, but it mostly helps. Hearing stories from people after the show about how they connect to the songs has helped as well. When people tell me how a certain song has helped them through a tough time or how they can relate to it because they went through a similar situation always makes me feel like I’m out there doing something good for people.

FT: There’s a real political edge to this album, ‘American Love Song’ . Given the conservative nature of much of the country audience, is this a dangerous move, or do you just write it, as you see it, and to hell with the consequences?

RB: I just write it as I see it. To hell with the consequences. I can’t pretend to be something I’m not and in these highly political times it would feel weird not to address some of the issues that surround us every day.

FT: You certainly don’t sit on the fence regarding your views on the current administration- “As the President shits upon the nation Wipes his ass with all denominations Turns around and begs for donations Riding on the back of the poor men, selling them Lies!” ( ‘Situation Station’ ) How is that going down in gigs in the States?

RB: I just played two months of sold out shows all across the United States, and it was the best tour I have ever had. I wasn’t sure how it was going to go over either but I know now that the feeling is mostly mutual among my fans here.

FT: What artists are you listening to now yourself?

RB: I’ve been listening to The Markus King Band. Hell of a guitar player and singer.

FT: So what does 2020 hold for Ryan Bingham?

RB: I’ve been working on a lot of music for film and TV projects at the moment. I’m also doing a bit of acting and going to start recording a new album as well so the next couple of years will be busy in a good way.

FT:  Ryan thanks for taking the time to talk to Folk and Tumble, and good luck with the album and tour.

RB: Thanks for having me.

Ryan Bingham plays the Black Box on 21st January 2020 as part of the Out To Lunch Festival.  His album, ‘American Love Song’ is out now on the Axster Bingham label.

Ryan Bingham Unleashes His Spiritual Transformation With New Album, ‘Watch Out For The Wolf’

Ryan Bingham’s latest project is finally here.

Watch Out for the Wolf features seven tracks – six songs and an instrumental intermission – and marks the first project since his 2019 record American Love Song. Call it an EP or an album, whatever it is, Watch Out for the Wolf is loaded with Bingham’s authentic lyricism and raspy vocals that have won over countless fans over the years, pushing the envelope a bit sonically, yet remaining completely rooted in his classic sound.

Bingham took his fans by surprise when he released the project’s debut single “Where My Wild Things Are” back in May with no prior announcements or fanfare, but the rocking single reminiscent of songs like “Top Shelf Drug” set the tone for the album and began to garner quite a bit of suspense surrounding the project’s release.

To follow that up, Bingham dropped the second single “River of Love” a couple of months later, and this one seems to be a fresh take on the Mescalito sound that Bingham has built his storied songwriting career upon.

Of course, perhaps the reason that this project came out of nowhere was because it wasn’t planned to begin with, but rather happened as Bingham ventured off into the Montana wilderness with some basic camping supplies, a few mics, a “really f*cking old” Gibson acoustic guitar, and as Ryan himself put it, “a few grams of mushrooms and 40 years of locked up emotions and a bursting heart.”

He calls the project a snapshot of a moment:

“This collection of songs is a snapshot of a moment; a photograph capturing a time spent in the mountains of the Montana wilderness.

While making this album, I went through a definite personal evolution or spiritual transformation that I can’t really explain.

I know about free will, but this thing was completely out of my control. I just felt like a conduit most of the time. Creating this album in solitude was otherworldly, spiritual, and sometimes just downright f*cking terrifying.

I recorded this album in a cabin in Montana… as my friend Terry Allen says ‘sometimes ya gotta go north, to get south.’”

Now, with the highly anticipated Watch Out for the Wolf officially at our fingertips, I think it is safe to say that Ryan Bingham continues to reign as one of the greatest independent country music artists of the past couple decades, and his latest work even surpasses the lofty expectations his popular status has earned him.

So with that being said, go ahead and give Watch Out for the Wolf a listen. See for yourself, Ryan Bingham never misses.

“Where My Wild Things Are”

“Automated”

“Internal Intermission”

“River of Love”

“The Devil Stole My Style”

“This Life”

Bingham, who many also know as Walker from Paramount’s hit series Yellowstone , has grown quite a bit in popularity along with Yellowstone’s meteoric rise since that American Love Song record, but if Watch Out for the Wolf proves anything, it’s that Bingham hasn’t gotten too big for his breeches or lost his creative edge.

In fact, his artistry is still evolving, and I’m more than excited to see what Bingham has up his sleeve moving forward.

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Tuesday 25 June 2024

Ryan Bingham

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18300 W. Alameda Pkwy. 80465 Morrison, CO, US 720-865-2494 www.redrocksonline.com/

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Biographies

Ryan Bingham (born March 31st, 1981) is an americana singer-songwriter from New Mexico, who worked as a ranch worker and rodeo rider across the Southwest before turning his hand to his roots-based country music.

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Since his release of Mescalito back in 2007, I’ve been following Ray Bingham’s music career intently, and he’s had some incredible success over the past few years. Seeing him live was something that I’d dreamed of, and …

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This was such a great show! They sound so good live and they had fun you could tell. The venue was amazing for a show. I can't wait to come back.

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Rising Up With Ryan Bingham

Bull rider turned oscar-winning songwriter turned breakout yellowstone star ryan bingham is living proof that wild hearts can't be broken..

I'm still flying by the seat of my pants. A lot of this is just rolling the dice and seeing what happens. ~ Ryan Bingham

Ryan Bingham is finally having some fun. Don’t get me wrong — the 42-year-old musician and actor has always had a roll-with-the-punches kind of attitude. It’s just that life has thrown him more than his fair share of punches. These days, he’s feeling comfortable in his own skin and taking it all in stride.

The latest chapter in the wild ride of his life is of course his standout Yellowstone role as Walker, the Dutton Ranch’s down-on-his-luck, up-to-no-good ranch hand who everyone loves to hate (or loves to love, depending on your stance). In many ways, Bingham and his character have a lot in common. They’ve both been shaped by their tumultuous, traumatic pasts. They’ve both spent years as drifting vagabonds. They’ve both got ranching skills aplenty. And they both carry around a guitar for when the mood strikes.

But that’s where the similarities end. Unlike ex-felon Walker, Bingham has never done hard time — though he did find himself in a jail cell in his teens for hanging with the wrong crowd, plus his grandmother once told him she was surprised he wasn’t in prison. “ Yellowstone gives me an opportunity to be myself in a lot of ways, but my character is definitely more cocky than I am,” he says with a laugh. “Personally, I’m a little more on the ranch’s home team and less conflicted about the things going on there.”

How Bingham landed his role has become part of Yellowstone lore, one of many tales about mastermind Taylor Sheridan’s un-Hollywood approach to show-running. “Originally, Taylor contacted me about writing some songs for the show,” he explains. “Then when he discovered my family ranched and I used to ride bulls, he said, ‘Well, shoot. We gotta get you in the show. If you’re good, we’ll keep you on. If you suck, we’ll kill you off.’ I’m not dead yet.”

As Yellowstone fans know, Walker has had a couple close calls with fate but has some serious staying power. That works out well for Bingham, who’s gotten a new lease on life thanks to working on the show. “I really love staying in Montana for the summer while we shoot and just being in one place,” he says. “While out touring, I spend so much time in big cities and on concrete. Yellowstone really gives me a chance to slow things down. It helps me get back to horses, back to nature, back to seeing food grow out of the ground and what it takes to do that.”

Although he has incredible respect for the seasoned actors he gets to work with and learn from —  Kevin Costner , Luke Grimes , Kelly Reilly , and Cole Hauser to name a few — his favorite costars might just be the horses. “I grew up in the country, and I love being out in nature and getting to work with horses every day,” Bingham says. “That’s definitely in my blood and something I really appreciate about the show. Working with horses is a very humbling thing. They’re so strong and powerful yet at the same time such empathetic, sensitive creatures.”

His partner in crime for much of Season 5 was a big gray gelding named Ironside. “He’s a big old guy and just a sweetheart; I absolutely fell in love with him,” he says. “I roped off him a lot, and I did all the branding scenes on him. He took really good care of me and was super calm and gentle with all the noise on set.”

Working with horses is a very humbling thing. They’re so strong and powerful yet at the same time such empathetic, sensitive creatures.

For inquiring minds who want to know (like me), Bingham explains that ranching and riding experience isn’t a prerequisite for being on the show. Yes, they film on real ranches with real livestock, and real ranch hands help out on those scenes. But not all actors come in with that know-how. “I feel lucky that I had the experience growing up, but some of the other actors have never been on a horse in their life,” he says, naming Jefferson White, who plays Jimmy, as an example. “I have a lot of respect for them because they get out there and work hard at it. It’s been fun to watch, and you can tell it’s filling up their souls in ways that the big city can’t.”

For Bingham, Yellowstone feels like home. Born in New Mexico, he spent his childhood drifting through California and various parts of Texas, never in the same spot for more than a year or two. Having lost their ranch, his unpredictable alcoholic parents uprooted his family time and again in constant pursuit of work in the oil fields. As a result, Bingham felt like a perpetual outsider. He found some stability in the rodeo, where he started riding steers at age 11 at the urging of his uncle, a professional bull rider. Soon enough, he was making some money and breaking some bones.

It wasn’t until his later teens that he picked up a guitar, a gift from his mom, and learned to strum a few chords thanks to a mariachi neighbor. Pretty soon, he was writing his own songs and playing at dive bars, bowling alleys, backyard barbecues — anywhere that would have him. Once that started bringing in a few hundred bucks a pop, he could leave his manual-labor side gigs behind. The guitar granted him freedom in more ways than one.  

“Financially, it allowed me to work for myself and gave me the opportunity to travel to places I probably never would have had the opportunity to see,” Bingham says. “Emotionally, it gave me an outlet for a lot of things that needed to come out and that I needed to process. That really freed up my soul.”  

And there’s a lot to process. The nomadic nature of his youth that left him without a true sense of belonging. The rough-and-tumble life of a rodeo rider and a budding musician on the road. And the untimely deaths of both his parents, his mom to alcoholism and his dad to suicide.

The earlier of his seven albums lean more autobiographical, to devastatingly beautiful effect. These days, his music is certainly still cathartic but often serves to help him process the world around him, rather than the world inside him. For instance, his most recent album, American Love Song , touches on pressing topics like political division and gun violence.

That kind of raw authenticity has earned Bingham a dedicated fan base who are drawn to his genre-bending sound that encompasses country, folk, blues, punk, rock ’n’ roll, and everything in between. Which makes perfect sense when you consider his wandering life story and his early influences: Muddy Waters, Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, the Rolling Stones. “At first, I was writing songs that were more or less just for myself,” he says. “But then I’d hear from fans how they’d connect with the songs. That made me realize how much we as human beings have in common through the emotional roller coaster of life.”

American Hat Co. grizzly felt hat, Free People scarf, Tecovas denim pearl snap shirt, Wrangler jeans, Beck Cowboy Boots

He still holds some music close to the vest. “The thing about writing and recording music is that it stays around forever,” he says. “If you don’t want to relive that memory you’re expressing, you’d best not record it, right? There are certain very personal songs I choose not to share. Not everything is meant to be put out into the world, and I’m still very protective over it. It’s a sacred thing for me.”

Bingham had no choice but to embrace the spotlight when his song “The Weary Kind” — cowritten with T Bone Burnett for 2009’s Crazy Heart  — won him an Oscar, Golden Globe, Grammy, and Critics Choice Award. “I was touring around the country in a van with my buddies playing bars and honky-tonks; then all of a sudden, I’m at the Oscars wearing a tuxedo,” he recalls. “Afterward, the floodgates just opened up to opportunities, introductions, and different projects. That’s led all the way up to Taylor Sheridan and working on Yellowstone . It was a life-altering thing.”

Of course, that doesn’t mean it was easy. “It was very overwhelming and surreal,” Bingham says. “I wasn’t ready for it, even on a maturity level. I was pretty young, in my early 20s, and there were a lot of things I was still trying to figure out personally. Then you’re put in front of millions of people, and people are saying all these things about you that you’re not even sure are correct or true for yourself. It humbled me and made me grow up in a lot of ways.”

That prompted a flurry of new fans, who weren’t necessarily familiar with his definition-defying sound. “A lot of older people would come to our shows expecting this sit-down acoustic folk singer; they didn’t realize we were a rowdy punk-rock cowboy band,” Bingham says. “But for the most part, people have really been open to letting me explore different sounds and throw different types of songs at them. That’s been pretty cool.”

Although there’s still a familiar forlornness to his music, he’s learning to embrace some levity — another unexpected result of working on Yellowstone . “When it comes to acting, I get to play Taylor Sheridan’s character and just have fun with it,” he says. “I’ve been able to take that and really lighten up on the music side. I’ve realized it doesn’t always have to be so heavy. When I was younger, everything felt like life or death. I think I’ve settled into myself in a little older age, and I’m a lot more comfortable with the business and how it works. I’m just having fun with it.”

That sense of ease is apparent as Bingham and I are chatting ahead of sound check at the first of his 2023 concerts, at Denver’s Mission Ballroom. Rather than playing at any venue that will take him like the early days, now, thanks to the incredible reach of Yellowstone , he gets to play the shows he wants, in front of ever-growing crowds. The die-hards still turn out in droves and educate the newbies about his vast, varied music catalog, proving there’s plenty more to the real man than his TV character.

Those longtime devotees were also a driving force behind his latest venture, an eponymous spirits company whose Bingham’s Bourbon hits this year. While it might seem like a departure, it’s actually a natural fit. “At one of my very first gigs in a tiny little Texas bar, the owner told me, ‘Kid, if you can keep people buying drinks, you’ll always have a gig here,’” he recalls. “So in a way, that made me think as long as people are drinking and enjoying themselves, I’ll still have a job.”

Bingham has been intimately involved in developing the whiskey, taking cues from his travels to destinations like Ireland and Scotland to perfect the flavor profile. To honor his roots and his biggest fan base, the bourbon is made in the Lone Star State using exclusively Texas-grown rye, wheat, barley, and corn. As Bingham explains, it’s quite literally the distilled spirit of Texas.

Although his plate is plenty full these days, he’s finally in a place where he’s only doing the work he wants to.   That leaves some room for favorite activities like riding his horses and surfing near his California home. “Not everything has to be about the money,” he says. “There’s got to be something more to it, like integrity and passion. When it comes to writing songs, you have to be careful about what you write, because you might not want to sing it when you get out there on stage. I try to approach everything with that mentality and make sure it’s something I really want to be doing 10, 20 years from now.”

Lest this sound like Bingham has crafted some sort of master plan for life, rest assured he’s still just going with the flow and honoring what the universe puts in front of him. “I’m still flying by the seat of my pants,” he says with a laugh. “A lot of this is just rolling the dice and seeing what happens.”

That blow-with-the-wind attitude serves him well on Yellowstone , where Bingham is on a need-to-know basis — meaning he doesn’t know the outcome of the cliffhangers or plot twists any more than avid fans do. “My character’s not privy to a lot of information, which works well for me,” he says. “Even when you think you know what’s going to happen, after a few days of filming, they might come back and say, ‘We’re going to redo that and write something different.’ So you never know until it’s all edited together. I enjoy not knowing; it makes it more fun to watch when it comes out.”

After a lifetime of turbulence, it seems Bingham has started to embrace the uncertainties and actually enjoy the wild ride. He’s found his place in the world, although he’s still not in any one spot for too long (unless that’s Montana while filming Yellowstone ). And by all accounts, he’s finally letting himself have a little fun.

Check out our Ryan Bingham Spotify playlist to get familiar with the cowboy's greatest hits!

Photography by Chris Dickinson Ryan Bingham was photographed in Los Angeles for C&I ’s April 2023 issue by photographer Chris Dickinson .

Find out more at ryanbingham.com and binghamspirits.com

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• Columns , Interviews , My Roots

Ryan Bingham’s Spirited Journey Continues With Top Shelf Americana (INTERVIEW)

• By Leslie Michele Derrough
• One Comment

It’s a bit on the warm side, this Friday night in New Orleans when Ryan Bingham takes to the Flambeau Stage at the Voodoo Music & Arts Experience a few weeks ago. Opening with a kicking “Dollar A Day” from his first solo record, 2007’s Mescalito, when Richard Bowden’s fiddle kicks in, you can feel this set is going to be fun. With a top-notch band by his side – including Bowden, guitar player Daniel Sproul, drummer Nate Barnes and bass player Jimmy Stofer – Bingham brought out mostly the spirited kick up your heels music, allowing for more dancing and singing over contemplating the labors of life slower tunes, with the fiercely electric “Sunshine” bringing the house down in a rip roaring hog snorting crescendo thanks to guitarist Daniel Sproul’s fever pitch playing, especially on slide (if you’re looking for a new guitar hero to follow, he’s your boy).

Bingham has one of those stories songwriters like to conjure up when creating phoenixes from the ashes. Born in New Mexico, raised predominately in Texas, he was given his first guitar at sixteen, learned his first chords via a mariachi tune a neighbor taught him, rode bulls on the junior rodeo circuit and found songwriting as a way to deal with his parents’ problems. He could very well have followed them down the same hole into a life of sorrow and alcoholism but fate kept pulling him in a different direction. Constantly coaxed into pulling out his guitar and singing for friends led to singing to more and more people. Before he knew it, he was on a stage, opening for legendary Texas musician Joe Ely, recording several records with the Dead Horses, going solo with his first release in 2007, winning a Best Original Song Oscar and Golden Globe Award for “The Weary Heart,” which he co-wrote with T-Bone Burnett for the 2009 Jeff Bridges film, Crazy Heart, and starting Axster Bingham Records with his wife Anna.

“I feel like I’ve been traveling my whole life, even from when I was a little kid,” Bingham said upon the release earlier this year of Fear & Saturday Night . “Both of my parents were really bad alcoholics and my dad could never keep down a job, so we never lived in the same town for more than a couple years. And even if we did, we’d move to different houses every other month. It felt like I lived out of a cardboard box growing up until I was old enough to buy my own suitcase and then I was just running from everything.” Bingham has definitely proved his talent, his dedication and his loyalty to the music and fans who kept leading him in a positive direction.

Following his set at Voodoo, which garnered them Glide’s  “Star Of The Day” accolade, I was able to chat with Bingham about doing an interview in the future. A week later, it happened. “I told you I’d talk to you,” he said with a cheerful laugh when we began our chat while he was relaxing at his home in California before heading back out on the road the following week.

Oh, you weren’t the only one (laughs). I promise we were right there with you.

Was that your first time at Voodoo?

Yes ma’am. It was my first time at Voodoo Fest but I’ve been in New Orleans a bunch. We had a blast. It was awesome.

You caught it on the good day because Saturday it got real bad.

Yeah, I heard. We flew out the next morning to go to Austin but we had a blast while we were there. We were jetlagged. We just flew in there from Dublin, Ireland, so we were all pretty jetlagged but it was kind of the perfect place to be. There was definitely a lot of stuff to do and to keep your mind busy and kind of stay active. It was nice. I really enjoy New Orleans so it was great.

How differently do you prepare your setlist for a festival as opposed to a normal show?

Well, it depends on how long the set is. Usually we play like two hours in our normal set so we definitely have to kind of trim it down and things like that. But usually at a festival like that, especially when you are competing against a lot of other noise from other stages, it also depends kind of on what time you go on and what other kinds of bands are playing. It’s really difficult at festivals like that to play slow acoustic ballads because you get a lot of bleed and noise from other stages. So sometimes it’s hard to fingerpick a really slow ballad if all you hear is a snare drum from another really loud rock & roll band next door, you know. So we try to keep the songs a little bit more up tempo and fast-paced and keep the volume up a little bit louder onstage so we can hear what we’re doing and playing. But other than that, we try to play songs we enjoy and hopefully the fans enjoy too. We try not to have to compromise too much with that.

On your set-list, you marked out “Hallelujah” and added in “Rip This Joint.”

Yeah, I did. That was one that I thought that if we did “Hallelujah,” cause a big part of that song is very quiet and it’s very stripped-down and very acoustic, I was afraid it would kind of get lost in the noise from the EDM stages and things like that. I’ve kind of battled that in the past at festivals so I just figured we would just keep the ball rolling and stay in the groove instead of kind of bringing it down that slow. I would have liked to have played it but unfortunately sometimes the environment doesn’t really call for that kind of situation. Sometimes you just have to adapt to the situation. You get out there and you plan on playing some songs but maybe the crowd is energetic and they’re wanting to party a little bit more and you just kind of go with the vibe of the crowd and the vibe of the festival as well. So we always keep some audibles in there in case we need to shift gears.

And you got to meet some fans when you went out to watch Jason Isbell, who played after you.

(laughs) Yeah we did. That’s really why we’re there playing, you know. If people didn’t want to hear the songs and hear us playing them, I’d be back at home building a fence on the ranch. That’s the only reason I’m out there doing it so I’m really appreciative of folks and I’m happy to meet them as well. It makes it all worthwhile for all of us all the way around. It’s a give-and-take situation. The fans give us just as much as we’re giving out and we feed off that energy and we’re happy to be there playing and happy that they want to hear the songs. So I feel really lucky to be able to play music for a living and get to come to places like New Orleans and play at Voodoo Fest and all the other places we get to go to. We’re real lucky to do that so I try not to take that for granted.

Considering some of the things that happened in your early life, where did your confidence come from?

You know, I think probably it comes from the fans. When you get up there onstage and they’re happy and clapping and they want to hear the songs and they’re singing along to the tunes, that really gives you the confidence to play them. That is what has always driven me from the start is playing music. I never really got into writing songs or planned to really perform for people. I just really wrote songs for myself and it all started from just my friends and maybe people from my family that wanted to hear the songs and then friends of theirs and it kept growing to other folks that wanted to hear the songs. That was what really encouraged me to keep playing and to really perform for people: just folks out there asking me to play the songs. So definitely people singing along to the songs and asking me to play them. That gives me all the confidence in the world to get up there and play them for people.

You’ve said before that your early songs were like a diary and that they weren’t really for other people to hear. What are a couple of those songs that did make it out?

Oh I don’t know, I mean, a lot of them are written in that way and there are a lot of them that I’ve been singing. Probably the majority of them have kind of come out of that batch.

And you don’t mind singing some of those onstage that are so personal?

It depends, you know. Definitely some songs are harder to play every night than others, especially when you’re on tour and playing those songs every night. There’s definitely some of them that are harder than others but at the same time those are songs that people can kind of relate to and connect with their own stories or whatever they had been through personally. So then that’s something I’m happy to play and can kind of get something else out of that, you know. So it just depends on the situation and kind of who wants to hear the song.

Do you think having had that outlet helped you not go in the direction as what happened with your parents?

Yeah, totally. I think I could very much have wound up in jail than on the road and playing music. That was definitely a great release and a great way to vent and get stuff off my chest and kind of help process the world around me and help me grow up and help me deal with things. That’s what writing songs has really been about for me for a long time. It’s gotten to a point now where I’ve really been able to transition out of that and kind of write songs for other reasons. But for a long time, especially in my early twenties being a young man growing up, it was a great thing to have and be able to kind of voice that stuff.

I understand that you prefer writing more on your own and not so much on the road.

Yeah I do. I feel like I have to travel a bit before I can write, you know. I think that I have to have something to write about and traveling is where I really have those experiences and adventures and you meet people out there on the road along the way and you experience different cultures and different foods in different parts of the world and I feel like when I get home is when I can sit down and really reflect on the places that I’ve been and people I’ve met along the way and that’s what I write about. So when I’m out on the road I just try to soak it all up and kind of live in the moment and not live through an iPhone or a piece of paper writing stuff down. I just try to be in the moment and then think about it when I get home and write about it.

You released Fear & Saturday Night earlier this year. What was wanting to come out of you when you started writing the songs for that record?

You know, I try not to really think about it that much. I just try to write what’s on my mind. I’ve never really been one to sit down with a pen and paper and try to force out a song or try to craft some idea. It’s hard for me to sing about something I haven’t experienced or that I haven’t really lived through. I feel like, how do I expect people to believe what I’m saying if I don’t believe it myself. So whenever I’m writing songs, I just try to write about stuff that I really feel, something that I’ve been through and something that I can sing every night and really mean it. That’s just kind of how I’ve always gone about it.

Have you started writing for a new record yet?

I have. I’ve always got little ideas. I don’t write many lyrics on the road but I’m always playing the guitar and writing melodies and musical ideas. When I’m on the road I will record and write all these little ideas and then I take them home and kind of put words to them. So I’ve got a handful of stuff that I’m working on.

Do you know when that will be seeing the light of day?

I’m hoping to start really dialing stuff in and recording the middle of next year. So hopefully by next fall I’ll have another record out.

When you first started learning to play guitar, what was the most difficult part to get the hang of?

When I first started learning, and I’ve never had any sort of musical training or background, I really just had a neighbor that taught me how to play some old mariachi music when I was about seventeen and that was the first music I ever learned. Really, the biggest part was kind of expanding from there and learning other chords and probably the other biggest part was I’d never played with a band before. I could play acoustic guitar and I could play one or two chord songs and things like that but when it came down to sitting with a band, it was really like having to orchestrate the songs and arrange the chord progressions and all of that stuff. It was really learning what NOT to play that was the biggest thing; learning how to kind of create space and making room for everybody else in the band and just playing the part, whatever part you are playing on the guitar, and letting everybody else play a part that went with that. So that was probably the biggest learning lesson for me.

I have a question from a fan named Rhett who wanted me to ask you who your slide influences were, that he hears more Elmore James and Bonnie Raitt in your style than say Duane Allman.

Oh, that’s a good point. You know, definitely Bonnie Raitt, she was a big influence on me. But George Thorogood, of all people, was a sound that I heard at a young age. I was like, Wow, that’s a mean sounding slide guitar. George Thorogood was a big one for me. Then kind of older acoustic blues kind of music – Robert Johnson and things like that. I’m not sure how much slide he actually played all the time but just some of that early acoustic kind of blues sounds. But when it came to the electric, George Thorogood and that big, mean, kind of distorted tones. Marc Ford from the Black Crowes was a big influence on me too. He produced my first two records and he’s the one that first gave me an electric guitar and a slide and told me that he thought that would fit my personality (laughs). So he’s a pretty big influence.

How did you take to a slide? Did you find it like a duck to water?

I did. I loved it. Like, as soon as I picked that up and plugged that electric guitar in, I was just like, Yeah, let’s go! (laughs)

What is your guitar of choice today?

Right now, I’ve got a 1963 J45 Gibson acoustic that my wife bought me a few years ago for my birthday and that’s probably my favorite guitar to play.

Do you prefer acoustic over electric?

You know, I don’t really have a preference. It really depends on what kind of mood I’m in (laughs).

Keith Richards always said that the acoustic guitar is how you can really tell a good guitar player. You agree?

Yes ma’am, I do. I still have a lot to learn on the guitar. I get by with a few little tricks I know but I’m by no means a Duane Allman or any of those guys (laughs).

How did the mandolin come into your music?

I just picked up the mandolin a couple of months ago. A friend of mine named Jedd Hughes, who is a guitar player who plays with us sometimes, he got me that mandolin and then Richard, the fiddle player in our band, started teaching me some chords on it and I just started playing. I don’t know, just all of a sudden I had one and I really enjoy playing it and it’s been a lot of fun.

Where did you find Daniel Sproul?

You know, those guys, Daniel Sproul and Nate Barnes that plays drums with me, they were in a band called Rose Hill Drive from Boulder, Colorado. I’ve been a fan of those guys for a long time and I just ended up kind of meeting them randomly through some other friends and we just really hit it off and started playing music together and had a blast. Those guys are really incredible, some great musicians, and I’m happy to be on the road with them.

How long have they been with you?

Just over the past couple of years

In regards to the Dead Horses, why was it time to let go of that band a few years ago?

You know, there were a lot of different reasons. We’d been beating it up on the road for like ten years in that band and I think when we all got into that we were all really young and we were excited about the adventure of it all. But when you start really looking down the road and thinking, Do I really want to do this for the rest of my life, do I want to be an old man up on that stage playing a guitar and this and that, I think some of the guys in the band were just not really sure if they wanted to do that. I don’t want to really speak for everybody else but I know my drummer, Matt Smith, he wanted to start up a bar and a restaurant there in Fort Worth with his brother and sister, which they did and they have a great live music venue. Elijah Ford, who was playing bass, he was only seventeen years old when he started playing with us, and he’s an amazing guitar player and songwriter in his own rite, and he wanted to write his own songs and make some of his own records and get a band together. And that’s not something you can really do if you’re in another band as well. So just everybody had little different directions and things they wanted to do with their lives as well and it just got to that point where we all kind of wanted to do some other stuff and that was a big part of it.

Elijah played on his dad’s album, Holy Ghost , last year.

Yeah he did. You know, we all stay in touch and Elijah just played a bunch of shows with us in Spain with his band and he’s got a great new record out himself. He’s writing songs like a madman. He’s doing great.

Who was the first real rock star you ever met?

I would have to say Joe Ely

You’ve always spoken very highly of him. What is it about his music that you love so much?

I think part of it was that he was from Lubbock, Texas, and he was writing songs about a place that I was from as well. I was from Hobbs, New Mexico, which is just right across the state line, so all those songs and stuff were coming from an area that I grew up in so I could relate to him. He was one of the first people that I met who let me go out and play some shows with him and in my eyes he was a bit of a hero and somebody I looked up to. That was one of the first people that I met that had a big influence on me.

Did he let you sit in with him or he let your band play?

He took me on the road with him and let me open up for some shows, let me play a bunch of gigs with him. That’s when I first met him.

What do you have coming up the rest of the year?

I got a big tour coming up. We start up in Seattle, Washington, and head down the West Coast and then head back east. I got a couple of tours and hopefully record another record next year. So we’re definitely busy and a lot of stuff going on.

What still excites you about playing music?

Just learning something new every day. I feel like I have a lot of room to grow and learn as a musician and as a guitar player or mandolin or anything like that. So it’s just kind of learning from the people you’re around and the fans wanting to hear songs and the energy of it all. It just all feeds the fire.

Live photographs by Leslie Michele Derrough

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