from San Diego Union-Tribune on signonsandiego.com

Americana music maverick Ryan Bingham, who performs here Sunday at downtown’s House of Blues with his band, The Dead Horses, had a blink-and-you-missed-it role in the 2009 film “Crazy Heart.” But that didn’t prevent this New Mexico-born, Texas-raised troubadour from winning an Academy Award and a Golden Globe last year.

Americana music maverick Ryan Bingham, who performs here Sunday at downtown’s House of Blues with his band, The Dead Horses, had a blink-and-you-missed-it role in the 2009 film “Crazy Heart.” But that didn’t prevent this New Mexico-born, Texas-raised troubadour from winning an Academy Award and a Golden Globe last year.

His trophies came for the battered-but-proud ballad “The Weary Kind,” which he co-wrote with esteemed producer T Bone Burnett as the theme song for the Jeff Bridges-starring “Crazy Heart.” Bridges and co-star Colin Farrell each perform versions of the song in the movie.

Neither comes close to matching Bingham’s rough, grizzled voice, which suggests he might have spent much of the past 40 years barhopping with Tom Waits and Charles Bukowski. Except, of course, that Waits got clean and sober a few decades ago, while Bukowski died in 1994 (when Bingham was all of 13).

But Bingham’s gritty, much-older-than-his-years voice is no cheap affectation. His best work rises above his influences — which include fellow West Texas singer-songwriter Joe Ely, Bob Dylan, Steve Earle and “Nebraska”-era Bruce Springsteen — to deliver earthy, often somber, sentiments that sound steeped in world-weary experience, even when Bingham stretches a bit too far.

His latest album, “Junky Star” (Lost Highway Records) came out last year and was produced by Burnett (whose past credits range from Robert Plant and Alison Krauss to Gregg Allman and John Mellencamp). Raw and rugged-sounding, it evokes Bingham’s 2007 album, “Mescalito,” with a wounded tone that is mirrored by the spare, no-frills instrumentation.

How well these songs will work on stage here may have as much to do with whether the audience at House of Blues chooses to listen attentively or engage in endless chatter. The fact that it’s an all-ages show — and that the excellent San Diego band The Silent Comedy is opening (and will provide an animated ying to Bigham's comparatively

His trophies came for the battered-but-proud ballad “The Weary Kind,” which he co-wrote with esteemed producer T Bone Burnett as the theme song for the Jeff Bridges-starring “Crazy Heart.” Bridges and co-star Colin Farrell each perform versions of the song in the movie.

Neither comes close to matching Bingham’s rough, grizzled voice, which suggests he might have spent much of the past 40 years barhopping with Tom Waits and Charles Bukowski. Except, of course, that Waits got clean and sober a few decades ago, while Bukowski died in 1994 (when Bingham was all of 13).

But Bingham’s gritty, much-older-than-his-years voice is no cheap affectation. His best work rises above his influences — which include fellow West Texas singer-songwriter Joe Ely, Bob Dylan, Steve Earle and “Nebraska”-era Bruce Springsteen — to deliver earthy, often somber, sentiments that sound steeped in world-weary experience, even when Bingham stretches a bit too far.

His latest album, “Junky Star” (Lost Highway Records) came out last year and was produced by Burnett (whose past credits range from Robert Plant and Alison Krauss to Gregg Allman and John Mellencamp). Raw and rugged-sounding, it evokes Bingham’s 2007 album, “Mescalito,” with a wounded tone that is mirrored by the spare, no-frills instrumentation.

How well these songs will work on stage here may have as much to do with whether the audience at House of Blues chooses to listen attentively or engage in endless chatter. The fact that it’s an all-ages show — and that the excellent San Diego band The Silent Comedy is opening (and will provide an animated ying to Bigham's comparatively

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