Quality Americana

The full moon rises above a forest as pen scratches dance across the screen and sparks float through the air. A beautifully intense mandolin and acoustic guitar mix with drum beats for a soothing atmosphere.

“As I drive into the night, slip into the haze. Slowly open up my eyes, vanish from my pain. Up onto this mountain where all my wild things are. This is where I sleep at night, out underneath the stars,” Ryan Bingham sings in “Where the Wild Things Are” as we drift further into the evening. A lonesome whistle is a beautiful touch as we follow headlights down rural country roads. 

Ryan Bingham finds success in acting

Bingham has had one of the most interesting careers for a songwriter we’ve seen in the twenty-first century, coming from a regional act to one of the most decorated cowboys in Hollywood. Before becoming Walker in the hit Taylor Sheridan series Yellowstone, the 42-year-old artist picked up an Academy Award and a Grammy for his work on the 2009 film Crazy Heart with Jeff Bridges. “The Weary Kind,” co-written with legendary producer T Bone Burnett, was a radio hit that reached the top 20 of the Billboard charts and turned the raspy voiced Bingham into a national act. 

“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,” Bingham told Cowboys and Indians Magazine.

Ryan Bingham joins the rodeo

Bingham was born in Hobbs, New Mexico and moved around often as a child. He joined the rodeo at age 11 after encouragement from his uncle who rode bulls on the professional circuit. Bingham learned to play the guitar, a gift from his mother, while filling time off by the Texas border in Laredo. His father would have neighbors over to play mariachi music and Bingham learned pieces of the traditional Mexican style. 

“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,” Bingham said.

Bingham joined the rodeo team at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas and started performing in local venues. He was picked up by Lost Highway Records and later started Axster Bingham Records and released four albums under that label. Bingham’s new release Watch out for the Wolf appears for the Bingham Recording Company. 

“My heart still holds the memories, forgotten from my mind. Nothing to go back to now, no turning back the time. Your love that settles onto me, I carry with me now. Open wounds that bleed out in the distances allowed,” Bingham sings. 

The song gives the listener a feeling of restlessness and anticipation as it slowly builds and has reached the top ten of the Americana Music Association singles chart. Bingham’s history of moving across the rural towns in Texas, seeking adventure in the rodeo and finding success in acting all feel like essential pieces to the puzzle in this single. It’s a very reflectionaly work, and one that reveals itself more and more as you are hypnotized by the pulsing instrumentation. 

Find out more about Ryan Bingham here. 

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