The years of hard ranch work in the rural Southwest certainly adds a level of authenticity to Bingham's americana. In his mid-teens, Bingham lived alone, struggling to make a living through whatever manual work was available, often travelling with a guitar and entertaining his friends. Having been taught how to play at the age of 17 by a mariachi neighbour, Bingham found inspiration from the likes of Marshall Tucker, Bob Dylan and Bob Wills.
Bingham began releasing music independently, with his road-weary songs of hard drinking and rural life, catching the attention of Lost Highway Records, who, aided by the production talent of former Black Crowes guitarist Marc Ford, recorded his debut album, "Mescalito" released in October 2007.
His debut album was well received by critics, with his second, 2009's "Roadhouse Sun" equally praised for his musicianship and intriguing, rustic voice. Following this success, Bingham joined T-Bone Burnett in contributing to the Hollywood film, "Crazy Heart," which became a hit film. Bingham's "The Weary Kind" which was used as the theme song, went on to win a Golden Globe for 'Best Original Song' in 2010, as well as a Grammy Award for 'Best Original Song' also. 2010 was also witness to the release of Bingham's album "Junky Star" in 2010.
"Tomorrowland” followed in 2012, and was released on Axster Bingham Records, a label Ryan set up himself. His albums have faired well in the US charts, reaching number two on the Country charts for "Junky Star" and number seven for "Tomorrowland."
In early 2015, Bingham released his fifth studio album "Fear and Saturday Night", recorded mostly live with a brand new backing band. This record was born out of his time spent in an airstream trailer amongst the mountains, taking inspiration from the remote surroundings. There are many personal elements to the tracks on this album, and true to his previous recordings, Bingham's song-writing continues to be an open book through which he shares his life experiences.
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 finally getting tickets, I can say I was not at all disappointed with the performance, it lived up to and exceeded my expectations in every way. You can see why he’s won Grammys, Academy Awards, and a Golden Globe award, because the quality and skill of his musicianship is something I’ve never witnessed before.
As well as being a fantastic singer, Bingham writes all of his own music, and plays acoustically on his guitar. I was sat reasonably close to the front of the auditorium, and watching the ease at which he was picking through the complicated melodies of his songs was astounding.
He played through Tomorowland in its entirety, creating a magical narrative of music for the audience. He encouraged us to sing along, and got really involved with the corwd, giving us little back stories of each track, and how he came to write the lyrics and melodies accordingly. It was very magical to hear these descriptions first hand.
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