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Extensive CD review of JUNKY STAR
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Ryan Bingham And The Dead Horses
Junky Star
Lost Highway
Rating: **** (4 OUT OF 4 STARS)
We’ve gotta send out a long-distance high five to Ryan Bingham from
all of us out here in listener-land -– he got invited to the big
dance and opted instead for a lonely drive down a long dark road and
our stereos will all be better for it. The L.A.-based, Texas-born
singer-songwriter could have gone in a very, very different direction
as his follow up to “The Weary Kind,” the Oscar-winning tune from
2009’s country music parable Crazy Heart. Nobody would have begrudged
him a run at the brass ring and it’s not too far of a stretch to
imagine the good looking, gravel-voiced Bingham becoming a crossover
pop star but, nope, he decided to go way off trail and follow his big
win with Junky Star.
Recorded over three days with “Weary Kind” collaborator and
award-printing musical mastermind T Bone Burnett, Junky Star finds
Bingham stripping back his already bare-bones style until it’s
practically just a beating heart. Stark and minimal, Junky Star makes
every strum count and every beat of the kick drum resonate like a
meteor strike on a dark desert night. Dispensing with even the MOST
simple of adornments of his previous albums Roadhouse Sun and Mescalito –
accordion, mandolin, and so on – Bingham paints a huge, panoramic
picture with only a handful of elegant strokes, leaving the listener
hanging on every strum of the guitar and splash of the cymbals.
To read the rest of the review, click here
