Music Commission News

NM Musician Wins Golden Globe

posted Feb 9, 2010

Article Courtesy: Albuquerque Journal

(Bingham announced as winner Jan. 17)

This 'Crazy Heart' From Hobbs

By Leslie Linthicum
Journal Staff Writer
Critically acclaimed "Crazy Heart," one of the latest filmed-in-New Mexico movies, culminates in a performance of a new song written by washed-up country star Otis "Bad" Blake, played by Jeff Bridges.
The tune, which plays a central role in the film's narrative and was chosen as its theme song, was written by Ryan Bingham, a singer-songwriter from Hobbs whom you might not have heard of — yet.
The song is aching and lonesome, a confession of a lifetime of blunders and a prayer for redemption. It has been nominated for a Golden Globe award with buzz that it might also receive an Oscar nod.
Bingham sings in that gravelly style favored by John Fogerty, Bruce Springsteen and other world-class growlers. His voice sounds like he's been swilling kerosene, chewing broken glass and banging around dives and honky-tonks for longer than most of us have been alive.
In fact, Bingham is only 28, born in New Mexico into a family that ranched and ran the Halfway Bar, a roadhouse midway between Hobbs and Carlsbad.
He's been a rodeo cowboy and the frontman of a traveling band since his teens, but, this year, his life has gone in directions he never expected. Bingham took some time after his Golden Globe nomination was announced to talk about how growing up with ranchers and roughnecks in southeastern New Mexico helped him understand the characters in "Crazy Heart."
Bingham left Hobbs for the first time when he was 6. His family lost the ranch and fanned out to Bakersfield, Midland, Odessa, Laredo, Houston and other oil field towns to do roughneck work.
When Bingham was 13, he moved back to Hobbs to live with relatives and attended Highland Junior High School.
"Those years were some influential years in my life," Bingham says. "My grandpa and my uncle really put me to work and taught me things that kind of get me through life today."
He mowed yards, painted fences and did ranch hand work. He also listened to some of the vinyl his uncle had salvaged from the jukebox at the Halfway Bar.
"He had everything from Bob Wills to Bob Dylan to Bob Marley. Rolling Stones, a lot of Dylan, Led Zepplin, Waylon Jennings. Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, George Jones, Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen — I loved that record — and Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark," Bingham says. "I really grew up listening to those records, sitting around with him. It had a lot of influence on me musically."
Bingham didn't pick up a guitar until he was 17. By that time, his parents had split up, his older sister was on her own and it was time for Bingham to strike out alone.
"Our family kind of started breaking up and everybody went their own ways," Bingham says. His grandparents stayed in Hobbs (an uncle lives in Farmington), and Bingham quit school and went out on the West Texas/Eastern New Mexico bull riding circuit with some friends. He started writing songs and playing honky-tonks and eventually shifted into a music career.
Bingham had several CDs out with his band, the Dead Horses, when an agent from Creative Artists Agency working with "Crazy Hearts" sent director/writer/producer Scott Cooper some of his music.
Bingham had lunch with Cooper, who gave him a copy of his "Crazy Heart" script and asked him to read it and see if he was inspired to write anything for the film.
"I got back home and I read the script, and 'The Weary Kind' was the first thing I came up with off the top of my head," Bingham says. The next day, he was sitting on a coffee table in music legend T-Bone Burnett's living room with his guitar.
"I played the song and they said, 'This is it.' It was the one they wanted to use."
Bingham credits his New Mexico roots with helping him understand the film.
"I grew up around my dad and my uncles, and I was always around them and a lot of their friends, kind of an older generation, these oil field hands and ranchers. I've always grown up around these bars and these older guys, being in these bars when I was 10, 12 years old playing pool and drinking Shirley Temples."
When he read the script, he felt as though he already knew Bad Blake.
"His character was like, man, that guy could have been one of my uncle's buddies who stopped by to have beers in the afternoon."
Cooper also signed up Bingham and the Dead Horses to play the local pickup band that backs Blake in a New Mexico bowling alley scene. Bingham scored a speaking role in a scene with Bridges at a motel. The film should open in Albuquerque on Jan. 29.
Bingham spent three days on location in Santa Fe and Española. (The band plays in a rented building in Española, turned into a bowling alley for the scenes.)
He got to hang out with Bridges, Robert Duvall, Colin Farrell and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Bingham shares a writing credit for "The Weary Kind" with Burnett because Burnett helped rewrite a couple of verses. That in itself has propelled Bingham into another level of acclaim. And the movie and awards attention has only upped the heat of the spotlight.
"My phone's definitely ringing a lot more than it ever has," Bingham told me. "I've gotten a lot busier, I can say that."
Bingham lives in Southern California now.
"With all this stuff going on, I haven't been able to get back much, but I love New Mexico. I love coming back there," Bingham says. "It's always a place for me to just go back and think. Whenever I'm going to write some songs, it always really feels good to just take a drive through there and get back to where it all began."
Soon, Bingham will be back on the road touring with the Dead Horses, whether or not he's got an Oscar or a Golden Globe statuette.
"We'll start back up," Bingham says, "and we'll still be a band in a van, going down the road."

Article from Alb. Journal

Contact: Web: Abqjournal.com
Web: Abqjournal.com
Web: Abqjournal.com