{"id":58271,"date":"2026-02-17T16:11:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T16:11:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/17\/why-ryan-bingham-didnt-want-to-play-the-weary-kind\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T16:11:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T16:11:45","slug":"why-ryan-bingham-didnt-want-to-play-the-weary-kind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/17\/why-ryan-bingham-didnt-want-to-play-the-weary-kind\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Ryan Bingham Didn’t Want to Play ‘The Weary Kind’"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve always been afraid of losing that human connection with fans,\u201d Ryan Bingham<\/a> tells me. We\u2019re holed up in the green room at Cain\u2019s Ballroom<\/a> in Tulsa, where he is preparing for the second of back-to-back nights headlining the historic honky-tonk. \u201cIf I don\u2019t really believe or feel what I\u2019m singing about, how do I expect them to feel anything?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBingham has been thinking a lot about his fans these days. How crowds show up early in an artist\u2019s career out of curiosity, and then, through a combination of good songwriting and engaging stage presence, start to return time and again.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOver the years, people coming and wanting to hear those songs and share their story of why it\u2019s important to them reminds me that \u2018I\u2019m out here for you guys,\u2019\u201d Bingham says.<\/p>\n

\n\tFew art forms are as intertwined with the chaos of the American psyche as country music, and its current pivot back toward authenticity makes it ripe for an artist like Bingham. The 44-year-old exudes realness, which the former rodeo cowboy, New Mexico native, and Texas resident could exploit if he so chose. But the problem, as he sees it, is that any run at country music superstardom would likely mean alienating his longtime fans, the people who, after nearly a quarter century of following his career, have come to take possession of the songs that Bingham has written.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat transfer of power, so to speak, from artist to audience is what rekindled Bingham\u2019s love of songwriting. With the support of a new backing band \u2014 the sublime Texas Gentlemen \u2014 Bingham is writing again. He\u2019s also making peace with \u201cThe Weary Kind,\u201d the song for the 2010 film Crazy Heart<\/a><\/em>, which won him an Oscar and a Grammy, and, for a time, he refused to play live.<\/p>\n

\n\tToday, the song is back in his set list, and will soon join tracks off They Call Us the Lucky Ones<\/em>, his new album out May 1. It\u2019s Bingham\u2019s first studio LP since 2019, his first with the Texas Gentlemen<\/a>, and his seventh since his seminal debut, 2007\u2019s Mescalito<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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\n\tA concise 10 songs, <\/em>nine of them written by Bingham, They Call Us the Lucky Ones<\/em> contains a love song for his wife, Hassie Harrison, as well as a tale of narcotics trafficking in Mexico (\u201cCocaine Charlie\u201d). At times, Bingham gets introspective; at others, he sings about eating marijuana gummy bears \u201cin our underwear\u201d (\u201cAmericana\u201d). It\u2019s as complete of a record as Bingham has ever recorded.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut for as naturally as it fits into his catalog, They Call Us the Lucky Ones<\/em> almost never happened.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBingham hadn\u2019t been writing much, save for 2023\u2019s Watch Out for the Wolf<\/em>, a concept EP he created while wandering the Montana wilderness. Then, the following year, he was invited to join the Last Waltz Tour<\/a>, which features a rotating cast of musicians playing the music of the Band. Spending time in close proximity to supremely talented artists like members of Tom Petty\u2019s Heartbreakers sparked something in Bingham.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019d met Don Was on the Last Waltz Tour, and we became good friends,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was me and him and Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench all on a bus for a while. Talking to them and playing music every night, I just got inspired to write.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the process, he also realized he had accidentally become a member of a band: He and the Texas Gentlemen<\/a> were now one.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe last time Bingham had a proper backing group was early on in his career, around Mescalito<\/em>, with the Dead Horses. They parted ways in 2012, but Bingham had enough connections to find musicians when he needed to tour or record. When he landed the role of Walker on Taylor Sheridan\u2019s<\/a> juggernaut Yellowstone<\/em> in 2018, he all but put music on hold.<\/p>\n

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\n\tHowever, in late 2021, Bingham decided to book a show at Billy Bob\u2019s Texas in Fort Worth and sold it out. Quickly, he realized he couldn\u2019t do it alone. His friends Nathaniel Rateliff and Charlie Sexton suggested the Texas Gentlemen. By that time, the all-star collective of Lone Star State musicians was well-established as a bar band and session group, and they jumped at the chance to play with Bingham.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI hadn\u2019t played in months,\u201d Bingham says. \u201cI hadn\u2019t done any shows and had never played with these guys. No rehearsal. No nothing. We just showed up and winged it through this sold-out show at Billy Bob\u2019s, and it was so much fun. It was so easy. They had my back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBingham rang up the Gents again, for one-off gigs at Stagecoach, the Two Step Inn festival, and some National Finals Rodeo appearances in Las Vegas. He and the band couldn\u2019t deny their chemistry, nor the friendship they were forging.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was vibey, right from day one,\u201d Paul Grass, drummer for the Texas Gentlemen, tells Rolling Stone<\/em>. \u201cRyan\u2019s so laid back, and he\u2019s such a great songwriter. It was just an easy relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTHE TEXAS GENTLEMEN ARE BASED IN North Texas, most of them in or near Dallas, and have been playing together since 2014 \u2014 with a few lineup changes over time. The ones backing Bingham are Grass, keyboardist Daniel Creamer, guitarist Ryan Ake, and bassist Scott Lee. They also added Richard Bowden, who built a reputation as one of the best fiddle and mandolin players in Texas. Cody Huggins, a musician and longtime friend to Bingham, rounds out the group that played on They Call Us the Lucky Ones<\/em>. The title track, the only song not written by Bingham, is a Huggins composition.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut it\u2019s a song that Bingham came up with on the fly that underscores the bond between frontman and band. Near the end of his run on the Last Waltz trek in 2024, Bingham started making up a stream-of-consciousness song about his tourmates.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was literally just naming guys in the band,\u201d he recalls. He called it \u201cThe Ballad of the Last Waltz Band\u201d and played it once at a sound check before forgetting about it. Then, while recording what would become They Call Us the Lucky Ones<\/em> at 7013 Sound studio in Fort Worth with the Texas Gentlemen, Bingham started playing his ballad, replacing the Last Waltz artists with the names of the Gents: \u201cA guitar man on one side, a piano\u2019s man\u2019s left hand\/Scott and Paul gonna hold it down, we\u2019re the Texas Gentlemen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was a band\u2019s musical origin story and, on Tuesday, Bingham released \u201cThe Ballad of the Texas Gentlemen\u201d as the latest song off They Call Us the Lucky Ones.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt just made me think about being on the road with the band, which always makes me smile,\u201d Grass says.<\/p>\n

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