Latest Review: Magic Lantern - High Beams

Long Beach’s Magic Lantern have finally gone and released a new sonic document after what seemed like an eternity of waiting. Eagerly anticipated by those who have been biding their time waiting for the band to get on with their uber limited cassette only and CD-R releases (their Self-Titled CD-R was limited to 30), “High Beams”, the band’s latest opus [...]

Ryan Bingham; for those of you who didn’t read the LA Times article today

I didn’t expect this morning when I spread open the Arts & Music section of the Sunday edition of today’s L.A. Times to be completely bowled over by a story right out of a Cormac McCarthy novel and ripe for a Hollywood adaptation. Read Scott Gold’s piece on the West Texas singer songwriter, Ryan Bingham, a young musician who grew up the son of wayward substance abusing mother and father who spent his early years bouncing from town to town as his father followed whatever oil “roughneck” work he could find, only to eventually drop out of school and become a bull rider on the Texas rodeo circuit before being discovered and signing to the same record label as Willie Nelson.

In May of 2007, Bingham with Marc Ford (Black Crows) at the helm, entered The Compound Recording Studio (Mars Volta, Dusty Rhodes and the River Band, Ikey Owens, Greater California, Fielding, Codpiece, The Valley Arena, The Year Zero, and many more) in Long Beach to work on his debut record for Lost Highway Records (Ryan Adams, Willie Nelson, Lucinda Williams), which would consist of a collection of new recordings, revisited sessions, and remixes of prior recordings.

The results of recording session at The Compound is Mescalito - released in October 2007 - a fourteen song release that blurs lines between traditional and contemporary country. Bingham’s voice and lyrics are raw and sound more like that of a forty or fifty something, a point that those unfamiliar with Bingham’s back story might claim as being unauthentic, that is until they learn what events have led to this young 26 year old’s current place in life. Ford’s helping hand is apparent, but not over baring, in fact it was at his urging that a lot of the previous polished BS on earlier recordings be stripped from the songs.

Bingham is again taking up residence at The Compound this week - already recording a new album - before he and Ford play King King on April 9th (the same place Ford first saw Bingham perform) where the two will be filming a music video for Bingham’s song, “Bread And Water”.

For those who can’t make it to King King on the 9th, Bingham will also be performing on Saturday, May 3rd at Stagecoach (Coachella for country fans) in Indio, CA.

MP3: Ryan Bingham - Hard Times