Ryan Bingham w/The Americans

Americana singer/songwriter Ryan Bingham was raised in rural Texas, where years of hardscrabble ranch work and rodeo competitions would later lend a sense of authenticity to his music. Living alone since his mid-teens, Bingham shuttled back and forth between Southwestern border towns and relatives’ homes, often sleeping in his truck after rodeo shows. It was during those treks that he began entertaining friends with the guitar, an instrument he’d learned at the age of 17 from a mariachi neighbor – and thanks to the jukebox in his uncle’s roadhouse bar, fashioned a road-weary sound thanks to artists like Bob Dylan, Marshall Tucker and Bob Wills. 

“I always really struggled with my identity – who I was, where I was from,” Bingham explains of his long, deliberate pursuit of wholeness. “I always had my cowboy hat with me, but at the same time, you adapt to your environment.” Being the new kid in town usually meant unwanted attention, and having to fight to defend yourself. “You’d blend in as a means of safety,” he recalls. “Now that I’ve grown up, I’ve shed those insecurities. I realized my identity is a blend of different hats, different shoes, different pants.”  

His new album, ‘American Love Song’ is his best, most fully realized record to date and finds Bingham honing his creativity on two distinct levels: the personal and the cultural.