Ryan Bingham on the Red

Music | August 28th, 2014

Grammy and Oscar winning songwriter headlines Roots event at Bluestem

Grammy, Oscar, Golden Globe and Americana Artist of the Year award winner Ryan Bingham doesn’t have much to be weary about these days. Four years after the release of his highly acclaimed song “Weary Kind,” from the movie “Crazy Heart” starring Jeff Bridges, the musician is as prolific, rugged, charming and humble as ever.

It’s why Bingham will make for an excellent headlining act for Fargo-Moorhead’s very first Roots On The Red music festival, taking place Sept. 6 and 7. More than 20 “roots” acts will perform, including Steve Earle & Shawn Colvin, Steep Canyon Rangers, Jeremy Messersmith, Head For The Hills, William Elliott Whitmore, Joe Pug and Johnson Family Band.

Bingham is, in fact, so good that he’ll be able to headline Saturday’s event at the Bluestem Amphitheatre stage as a solo musician, just voice and guitar.

“A lot of times it frees me up to do a lot of the obscure or older songs that I have that the band may not know,” Bingham said to HPR about performing solo.

Last time he was here, he performed with his band, The Dead Horses, at The Aquarium. Bingham said they loved the show, though one band member ended up getting pneumonia.

“We had this great idea to tour in the north west, north east in the middle of January – 20 below, all the doors on the van froze shut,” Bingham laughed.

When he returns this month, Bingham will have an assortment of new material, including tunes from a new album to be released in January.

“It’s really a mix of the last four of my records,” Bingham said of the new album. “I kind of take the stuff that I like from the previous record and try to start with that and improve on them.”

As a songwriter, Bingham is strong on stay true to himself while also continually experimenting and pushing to be better. So listeners can always expect his roots-y style, raspy vocal tone, full-bodied rhythm guitar playing and home-style lyrics, yet they can also expect curve balls.

For example, on his latest record, “Tomorrowland,” Bingham beefed up his attitude and displayed his rock ‘n’ rock side. While other previous records have elements of rock, “Tomorrowland” has Bingham sounding like an outlaw, straight up.

Bingham laughed heartily when we asked him how he responds to those ask: “What kind of music do you play?”

“I kind of gave up on it at one point,” Bingham said. “Definitely the roots of what I started in are country, the blues and rock n’ roll. The first song I ever learned how to play was an old American blues song. I was living down on the border of Mexico so I have a lot of influences and that comes down.”

Bingham said he tries to only record music that he can recreate live and only write music that comes from experience.

“That way, when you go out there and have to play them every night and sing them every night, you really believe in what you are saying,” he said. “Otherwise you can’t expect anyone else to believe it.”

IF YOU GO:

Roots on the Red music festival

Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 6 and 7

Bluestem, 801 50th Ave. SW, Moorhead