Ryan Bingham - Live From Texas - Album Review

"RYAN BINGHAM LIVE" is his first live album. Recorded at the Whitewater Amphitheater in New Braunfels, Texas on August 6, 2016, this compilation only features part of that almost two-hour concert, which at the time was live-streamed on gaming platform Twitch in connection with Amazon - I blogged about it here. The whole concert is still available on Amazon Prime as a stream or as a video download. 

It seems that some versions (digital & CD) of this album were available through Amazon, but now have a national distributor in Thirty Tigers and added the LP format. The album is now also available on iTunes and Spotify.

The Oscar, Gloden Globe and Grammy winner, who came to prominence with his co-write of "The Weary Kind" with T-Bone Burnett for the 2009 movie "Crazy Heart" (which won Jeff Bridges also the Oscar for best actor) was touring behind his studio album "FEAR AND SATURDAY NIGHT," when he made his stop outside of New Braunfels.

Playing in front of a solid rhythm section, Nate Barnes on drums and Shawn Davis on bass, backed by guitarists Daniel Sproul and Jedd Hughes, latter also on mandolin and as special guest Richard Bowden (Maines Brothers Band, Austin Lounge Lizards) providing all those hot fiddle licks, Bingham went through 19 tracks in this almost two-hour show. Most hailed from his major 2007 debut "MESCALITO," including a great version of his single "Southside of Heaven." Four songs stem from "FEAR AND SATURDAY NIGHT" and two each from "ROADHOUSE SUN" and "JUNKY STAR."

Besides his album cuts Ryan also included covers by Townes Van Zandt "Pancho & Lefty," Guy Clark "Dublin Blues," and Merle Haggard's "Mama Tried." It was really nice to see, Bingham including two songs of the then recently departed Clark and Haggard in front of such an enthusiastic crowd. Unfortunately, these cover versions are missing from the audio releases, as well as two "MESCALITO" compositions, the original opening song of the evening "Dollar A Day" and "Ever Wonder Why." Available though for the first time outside of the official soundtrack, is the above-mentioned theme song of the Grammy-winning movie "Crazy Heart," "The Weary Kind."

The clip below is from the live recording, the song "Radio" was originally released on "FEAR AND SATURDAY NIGHT."

Live-Concert ****(*)/***** 4.5/5
Audio products ***/*****3/5 (due to missing songs)



Sources: Amazon Concert Live Stream, Ryan Bingham, Releases.Red

Ryan Bingham - Live From Texas

Screenshot - Ryan Bingham performing live at Whitewater Amphitheater 

By accident I stumbled upon a tidbit that Ryan Bingham's concert at the Whitewater Amphitheater outside of New Braunfels will be streamed live (yesterday 8/6/16). It was too late to blog it in advance, but to my delight, the stream is still available and the whole concert can still be enjoyed n its full length.

Not familiar with the gaming platform Twitch, I first was wondering why amazonmusic would choose an outlet like this. But the almost two hour concert is wonderful, portraying the Americana artist in its best light and well worth tuning into Twitch.

The Oscar, Gloden Globe & Grammy winner, who came to prominence with his co-write of "The Weary Kind" with T-Bone Burnett for the 2009 movie "Crazy Heart" (it also won Jeff Bridges an Oscar as best actor) is currently touring behind his 5th studio album "FEAR AND SATURDAY NIGHT" which was released in January of last year. This does not include two non-major albums Bingham released early in his career in 2002 "WISHBONE SALOON" and 2006 "DEAD HORSES."

Besides his hits Ryan also included covers by Townes Van Zandt "Pancho & Lefty," Guy Clark "Dublin Blues" and Merle Haggard's "Mama Tried." It was really nice to see, Bingham including two songs of the recently departed Clark and Haggard in front of this enthusiastic crowd. Playing in front of a solid rhythm section, Nate Barnes (drs) and Shawn Davis (bs) with guitarists Daniel Sproul and Jedd Hughes, latter also on mandolin, setting the accents of the show. And yes it is good to see my old pal Richard Bowden still playing all these hot fiddle licks.

Unfortunately I don't know how long amazonmusic or twitch will keep this nice concert video up, so I guess watch it as long as it is hot. If you read this later, and the video shouldn't be playing anymore, please leave me a comment. And I guess thanks to amazonmusic to stream this concert - visit them and buy some Ryan Bingham music.


Watch live video from amazonmusic on www.twitch.tv

Jack Ingram Honors Guy Clark With Song

You may have read my recollections about Guy Clark, after his passing earlier this month: "He Ain't Going Nowhere" and how he showed up for Jack Ingram's record release party for "Livin' Or Dyin'" in Austin in March of 1997.

Well, Jack posted a new song about his friend Guy Clark "Sailor And The Sea" and a background story about that song on his facebook page.





I let him tell the story in his own words:



"The Sailor & The Sea"

I wrote it for/about Guy Clark.

He told me a story about riding out Hurricane Carla, 1963, in the bay at Rockport on a boat he had helped restore & was scheduled to sail to Florida the next week. Hurricane Carla took out Galveston. It was a big one.

He anchored the boat out in the bay with 100 lb test rope. He tied 10 lines of rope to the anchor, each one 10' ft longer than the previous. As one would break there would be 10 more feet of line & the boat remained steady.

Storm passed. Made a few minor repairs & sailed the boat to Florida.

The old sailor's poem came to mind:

"Red sky morning, Sailor's take warning- Red sky night, Sailor's delight"

In general...

I don't know how it all works- the if and what and why, where, when. I never will. But I do believe in magic. The kind of magic that we make. We make happen every day right here when we need it and especially when we need it now...the kind we muster up when we have the want to, the will, the why the hell not, the what's the worst that could happen and the what else we gonna do- quit...kinda spirit! It ain't because of a feel good, fill me up, help self help motivational pull...it's because quitting feels like shit and never fucking quitting feels fucking great AND gets us all feeling lucky in all the right ways even though we all know luck's for suckers, sucker...but THIS sucker sure as shit AINT NO QUITTER!

Guy Clark never quit. He died trying.

I'm not talking about "trying" to beat what ailed him...I know for a fact he died still trying to write a better song. Trying to cut the word "compromise" out of the artist's dictionary. Trying not to allow the world AS IT IS...NOT "offend his sensibilities" of the world he built every day at his workbench.

I loved Guy. I didn't need him to but he let me know in ways he knew I'd know that he was glad I was in his world. That felt really fuckin' good. He knew I needed that from him and he gave it to me.

Guy Clark took moments of absolute CLARITY and turned them into songs that were clearer than the original moment!

If you've EVER tried to explain a dream to ANYBODY then you know that doing that in any meaningful way is damn near IMPOSSIBLE! That's what Guy's songwriting was like...like he explained something in FULL DETAIL that came from a dream, from a moment that was only seen by one person but now was sitting there in full color detail ready to be viewed by the world even more brilliant than when it was a perfect moment!

Guy was my hero. He was my friend. He was hard on my songs. He told me I was doing "Good Work"...which is the same, for Guy Clark, as when your puppy dog licks your face & wets himself because you're the best owner in the whole world! smile emoticon

I could go on. In fact, I will!

I'm gonna do what I've done since the day I first heard a Guy Clark song as a young songwriter...I'm gonna TRY! I'm going to keep trying...try to write a better song than I've written before! Try to write a better one than Guy ever wrote! After I do that...I'm gonna do it again...until I can't do it anymore...then I'll do it all again...or die trying! That's what my heroes would do!

Things Ain't Getting Any Better...But Everything's Gonna Be Okay (me, Shawn Camp & Guy Clark wrote that),

Good bye, Guy...that son of a bitch is comin'..,

Jack

He posted the song in his dropbox, where you can download it from, here's the link "Sailor And The Sea" - where you can download this nice tribute. 



I also found this great interpretation of Clark's song "Stuff That Works" from The Kessler Theater in Dallas; the whole song which is available in other recordings Jack did of it, lives especially with Jack's intro on how he and Guy had a great relationship. He sure fits into Guy's boots. A new album by Jack, is scheduled to be released by the end of August of this year.



Stuff That Works

He Ain't Going Nowhere - Guy Clark's Just Leaving

Texas singer/songwriter legend Guy Clark passed away today, he was 74 and was in ill health for some of the last years. 

I will not even try to attempt to write an obit on this master of words, there are only a few in this world, who have (had) that craft of writing. Hank Williams comes to mind, a big influence for Guy, whom he celebrated in his composition "Hank Williams Said It Best," his old friend the late Townes Van Zandt as well as John Prine and Leonard Cohen. 

The only thing I would love to share here, are a couple of personal memories. An after hours night of pickin' and grinnin' at the Singer/Songwriter Festival in Frutigen in 1989. After a great night of fabulous live performances, we (a radio friend of mine, the promoter's daughter, Billy Joe Shafer and his son Eddy as well as Johnny Rodriguez) all landed in one of the hotel rooms. Being in a mountain valley, "far" from any major city we weren't able to score any party accessories, so we had to pass the night by listening to songs, which was as a natural high as they seldom come. 

Fast forward several years to 1997 - attending Jack Ingram's record release party for "Livin' Or Dyin'" for Rising Tide Records (by then an MCA imprint) at Iron Works Barbecue in Austin during SXSW -Guy Clark was attending, because Ingram had covered "Rita Ballou" for his third studio album. Enjoying the lovely spring sun, my ex-wife and I joined by Guy were standing outside, smoking. At one point we were all considering to go inside to rub elbows with some of the producers, label-head Tony Brown and other people being present, but Guy insisting to just have another smoke. In the end all of the label royalty showed up on the terrace to say hello and pay homage to Clark. After some pleasantries, they all went back inside, while we kept smoking, laughing and exchanging old stories.  

You may wonder what that old defunct motel sign is doing here, two years ago on a working trip I actually visited Guy Clark's hometown Monahans in West Texas. The Sunset Motel has definitely seen better days and even though the town was booming, there was not a room to be found, because of the oil price surge, it had a forlorn feel to it. 

As the quintessential Texas tune smith, there are several obits out there worth reading - the main one in my honest opinion "He Ain't Going Nowhere," published by Texas Monthly magazine four years ago. It's an intimate read, perfectly showing Guy's personality. Rolling Stone magazine offers: Guy Clark: 12 Essential Songs, which is worth visiting as well. 

Two of my favorite Guy Clark songs need to be added here, as a European transplant in Texas an ode to the culinary values of the Lonestar State, "Texas Cooking" and a song Guy wrote with his late wife Susanna and another Texas master poet, with Richard Dobson, "Old Friends"

Texas Cooking

Old Friends