“I ALWEAYS really struggled with my identity – who I was, where I was from. I always had my cowboy hat with me, but at the same time, you adapt to your environment.”
So said Ryan Bingham, the Americana, country-rock, and roots singer-songwriter, who is coming to Galway as part of his latest tour, to play the Róisín Dubh this Saturday at 8pm.
Bingham is not exaggerating about examining his own roots. Originally from Hobbs, New Mexico, he grew up across the Southwestern USA, never living in any one place for more than two years. Throughout his teens he was on the rodeo circuit as a bull rider. At 16, he was given a guitar by his mother, and within a few years was playing small bars and honky tonks across the west, eventually landing him in LA, and the release of his first album, Mescalito, in 2007.
"Being the new kid in town usually meant unwanted attention, and having to fight to defend yourself," he said. "You’d blend in as a means of safety. Now that I’ve grown up, I’ve shed those insecurities. I realised my identity is a blend of different hats, different shoes, different pants.”
Though generally classed as Americana, Bingham's music spans numerous genres, and draws from the various styles and musical traditions across the Southern US, be it folk, country, Cajun, blues, and Mexican ballads. In 2009 he won both an Oscar and a Grammy for 'The Weary Kind', written for the Jeff Bridges film Crazy Heart. The following year he was honoured as the Americana Music Association’s Artist of the Year.
He has released seven albums to date, his most recent being last year's American Love Song, produced by Bob Dylan's guitarist, Charlie Sexton. On it, he looks back at his early years playing open mics ('Jingle and Go' ), pays tribute to Janis Joplin and Aretha Franklin ('Blues Lady' ), and 'Wolves', which was inspired in part by March For Our Lives, a student-led demonstration in support of legislation to prevent gun violence in the US.
“I’m always trying to find ways to use songs to bring people together,” he says. “But the way things are right now, the things our president is saying – I think being complicit is not the way to go.”
Tickets are available from www.roisindubh.net; OMG@Zhivago, Shop Street; and the Róisín Dubh.
