Welcome back to Spins & Sips, where this week we pair a fantastic live album by Ryan Bingham with a classic cocktail with a twist.
Ryan Bingham Live is the first live album of Bingham’s steamroller of a career. It was recorded at Whitewater Amphitheater in New Braunfels, Texas on August 6, 2016. It was recorded at a time in Bingham’s life that he was gaining tremendous steam and finding his stride. It is raw, emotional, gritty, and energetic like everything the man has ever done. The slower, beautiful, stripped down songs for the broken and the brokenhearted, the upbeat mountain hoedowns, and the Dylanesque ballads all intermingled with straight up dusty West Texas cowboy songs and an Oscar & Grammy winner (The Weary Kind won both). Although the released album is not in the actual order that the concert was played in, the choices of placement seem well thought out and work from a creative standpoint. Some of the reorganizing (such as changing the opening song) bothers me, but not enough to detract from the album or dwell on too much.
This particular concert showcases the influence and reach Bingham’s music had started to have, as evidenced in the crowd singing along to pretty much every word sung. They even emphatically finished the last line on Sunrise for him, always a good sign of success and recognition. The catcalls from the ladies in the audience and the overzealous, most likely overserved, random untranslatable hollers from the dudes are very symbolic of the electric feeling and energy in the air. During the show, Ryan Bingham is at his rawest and most vulnerable during the block of “My Diamond Is Too Rough>Nobody Knows MyTrouble>The Weary Kind” in which he takes you on a journey of struggle, into a little stripped down autobiography, and finally singing you a lullaby that makes you forget your troubles. Still two years out from playing Walker on Yellowstone, Ryan Bingham’s charisma is on full display. A man with the grit of a bull rider and the confidence of the mayor of Badassville equipped with a raspy generational voice like cigarettes, bourbon, gravel, and steel. He is a drifter poet from New Mexico that embodies the Texas cowboy; an Americana everyman that knows struggle and triumph and then struggle again, always delivering a effective medicine tinged with fiddle and mandolin to all in need.
This is not just a greatest-hits concert—it’s a carefully curated emotional ride that pulls you into his world. Whether you’re listening for the storytelling, the raw performance, or the texture of his voice, every track delivers.
Highlights
Tell My Mother I Miss Her So: Starts like a rustic mountain hoedown, rootsy and fun, folk-tinged lament kicked up an extra notch by fiddle work
My Diamond Is Too Rough: bluesy swagger with poetic grit, raw vocal delivery and symbiotic textures of fiddle and mandolin, emotional
Nobody Knows My Trouble: stripped bare confessional piece, autobiography of the poet himself, steeped in personal despair, intimate storytelling front and center.
The Weary Kind: Oscar- and Grammy-winning theme from Crazy Heart, heartfelt showpiece, track the audience came to hear transform live, emotionally heavy lullaby for the broken
Bread & Water: fiery choice of a closer—foot-stomping, poetic, and raw, do-si-do playfulness with a rock jamboree feel and finish, ends concert on a high note
“Don’t you tell me about my trouble ‘Cause nobody knows about my trouble Nobody knows about my trouble Except for my baby and me”
-“Nobody Knows My Trouble”, Ryan Bingham (2015)
Here is a cocktail I worked up this week for this record. It matches the grittiness and Texas vibe of this record. It is spicy, so adjust as needed. Cheers!
West Texas Sour
2 oz bourbon or rye
1 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz jalapeño simple syrup (I use Fire Syrup)
In a shaker filled with ice, add bourbon, lemon juice, and jalapeño simple syrup and shake.
Strain into rocks glass filled with ice.
Garnish with cherry and jalapeño slice..
Drink and enjoy the sweet, the sour, and the spicy.
Groove Rituals 