Ryan Bingham & The Texas Gentlemen - Live At Red Rocks
(The Bingham Recording Company, 2024)
Ryan Bingham is King Midas. After releasing seven recordings since 2007 and becoming a matinee idol playing the idle cowboy Walker on the crazy popular Yellowstone (Paramount Network, 2018-2024) he steps out and makes a surprise definitive statement with The Texas Gentlemen on Live At Red Rocks. When the likes Luke Bryan and Tim McGraw typify country music, Bingham takes a road less travelled with some of the finest musicians Dallas, Austin or Nashville offers and updates the formula Bob Dylan and The Band employed during their 1974 tour, expanding the country genre.
While the comparison to Dylan, The Band, and Before the Flood (Asylum Records, 1974) may be hyperbolic, it's quite accurate. Both singers had established track records. The two also employed established bands. While The Texas Gentlemen lack the renown of the Band, they gained their reputation for being go-to musicians in the studio or on the road for artists like from legends including Kris Kristofferson, George Strait, and Joe Ely to newer artists like Leon Bridges, Paul Cauthen, and Shakey Graves.
The Gentlemen are definitely comparable to the Wrecking Crew, the Swampers, Booker T. and the MGs, and, yes, The Band. They have two New West Record releases to their credit: TX Jelly (2017, recorded at Muscle Shoals’ Fame Studios) and Floor It! (2020) that generated critical praise.
Besides The Texas Gentlemen, Bingham welcomed his old friend, fiddler Richard Bowden, who, together with Bingham, assembled a searing 16-selection set list of music infused with every genre of American Music. Bingham and the band inaugurate the show with a rollicking three-song introduction including a seriously overdriven performance “Nothing Holds Me Down” from American Love Song (Axster Bingham, 2019). Bingham takes full advantage of the Texas Gentlemen’s chops in executing a loose and threatening two-step baptism of the Red Rocks crowd.
Bingham next conjures a 21st century medicine show vibe with another American Love Song piece, the mirthful “Jingle and Go.” Infectious and strutting, Bingham completes his arrival with a seething, blues-rock infused “Top Shelf Drug” (from Fear and Saturday Night (Axster Bingham, 2015)). Bowen’s eerie fiddle and the Gentlemen’s voodoo magic make this concert opening complete. Bingham deftly programs a recital filled with virtuosity and drama, keeping things interesting throughout.
The heart of the performance lay in the concert’s five song middle section that begins with the majestic and beautifully noisy “Bluebird” from Bingham’s second album Roadhouse Sun (Lost Highway Records, 2009). Teeming with the twin distortion of Cody Huggins (whose slide guitar playing is outstanding) and Ryan Ake, the band gives Neil Young’s Arc Weld (Reprise, 1991) a run for its money while descending into its own sublime and depraved distortion, with Bingham’s desperate voice drowning in the mix. At nine minutes, it is the lengthiest and most dense song of the set. Next up is the crowd pleasing “Sunrise” from Bingham’s debut Mescalito (Lost Highway, 2007). The singer reflects:
“Livin’ in the desert with a one-eyed dog. You could lead a blind man outta Vietnam / Everybody’s beggin’ cause everybody wants a chance. Stuck in a storm, we’ll do a rain dance.”
The singer hits the sing-a-longs with the acoustic reduced “Hallelujah” and “The Weary Kind.” The Gentlemen, particularly Huggins and Ake, kill. “Southside of Heaven” raises the audience to its feet. Lee’s slide guitar accents the ballad perfectly. The bone-dry “Boracho Station” and John Prine-inspired “Nobody Knows My Trouble” make all familiar, warm, and safe.
Bingham burns the show down with a blues-infused “Sunshine” which opens with an acoustic slide guitar before reaching “Bluebird” proportions of loud, dissolving into the stomp of “Bread & Water.” One can compare this to Bingham's previous live recording. Ryan Bingham Live (Axster Bingham, 2016) is an excellent example of Bingham Live show, pre-Yellowstone stardom. It is a well-behaved country rock performance. It reveals Bingham as a fine lead and slide guitar player in his own right, something that competes with the Texas Gentlemen’s potent arsenal. The addition of the Gentlemen supercharges Bingham and his oeuvre. Intense and unrelenting, Live at Red Rocks lives up to all the things that make it a great live rock album.