As a former bull rider, singer-songwriter Ryan Bingham can see the similarities between working in a rodeo and a career in the music business.
“Oh, yeah. I mean, probably the biggest thing is that there’s a ton of (bullcrap) in both,” he said with a laugh.
As for which has more?
“I’d probably call them about even,” he added with a laugh.
That bull riding background added another layer to his career, with Bingham appearing as Walker, a ranch hand, in all five seasons of Paramount’s “Yellowstone” TV series. With that show wrapping up in 2024, Bingham turned his attention back to his music career, which included a 2011 Grammy Award for best song written for visual media for “The Weary Kind.”
Set for a May 15 release, Bingham’s latest album, “They Call Us the Lucky Ones,” was recorded with the Texas Gentlemen. He’ll open his tour a week later with a May 22 show at Stage AE on Pittsburgh’s North Shore. It’ll be Bingham’s first Pittsburgh show since 2016.
“Yeah, it’s been a minute, but I’ve played there a lot over the years and definitely had some late nights in the bars around there after shows,” he said.
In a recent phone call from California, Bingham spoke with TribLive about the new album, “Yellowstone” and more. Find a transcript of the conversation, edited for clarity and length, below.
You got to break out some of the new songs on “Austin City Limits” recently, so how did that go?
It was great. I haven’t played that show in almost 20 years, so it’s cool to be back on there. A lot of the songs are just a lot of fun to play live. So we’re really looking forward to getting on the road and playing all these new songs and getting it out there.
Is the whole new album going to be on the menu when it comes to your setlists?
Most of it, yeah. There’s a lot. We’re definitely going to be playing older songs and mixing it up. We’re big believers of giving people their money’s worth. I know people work hard all week long, and they pay their money to want to come see a show so I’ll be wanting to play the songs that folks want to hear too.
How do you narrow down what you’re going to play, because you have a pretty decent selection from your catalog that you can look at?
Man, it can get tough sometimes, but I really try to listen to fans and folks out there, hear what songs they want to hear the most. A lot of times even people will request them at the shows, and we’ll do our best to dig them out if we can remember them. (laughs) So we just try to listen to our fans and communicate and play what folks want to hear.
The new album comes out May 15 and there had been seven years in between full studio albums, so was music on the back burner a little bit for a while?
Yeah, I just didn’t really have the chance to tour much with working on the “Yellowstone” stuff. Now that that’s all done, I can get back out there and start making records and getting back on the road.
Does it feel like a comeback at all? Is that even the right word for this?
I don’t know. A lot of it’s really been inspired by this band, the Texas Gentlemen. I met these guys over the last few years, and I’ve really enjoyed just traveling with them and playing music with them. If I hadn’t met this group of guys, I might not be out there doing it as much, but they’re really an inspiring group to be around. We’ve had a lot of fun with it. The songs have been fun, and the shows have been great. It’s definitely something I’m looking forward to.
What did you miss the most about music? I know acting is probably taking care of one type of performance, but music’s totally different than that.
The music’s just a little more freewheeling. There’s part of me that’s a bit of a vagabond in the travel and hitting the road with all your friends. I’ve always just kind of gotten something out of music that I just haven’t gotten anywhere else.
How do you think this new album compares to your previous albums? What stands out the most about it to you?
I feel like it’s a bit like some of my older stuff. I went back to Texas to record it with these guys, and our good friend Grant Wilburn has a studio in Fort Worth we recorded in. We just kept it really loose and live and it wasn’t overproduced in any way and really just tried to capture the moment of how we were playing in the moment. They’re all a bunch of great musicians. We would do two or three takes of each song and just kind of call it a day and let the songs live on their own. We know they’re going to change and evolve in the future. That was one of the things I really enjoyed about making the record. It was just easy and cool.
So just doing a couple takes, does that feel more live doing it that way, not overthinking things?
Yeah, and we didn’t stress about it. We didn’t get in there and try to be perfectionists and just pick everything apart. We’re very much a band like that, since we started playing together there, the Texas Gentlemen on their own are a bit of a jam band, very improvisational. So we don’t rehearse much. We just let things be natural and let the songs have a life of their own. I really enjoyed that about playing with these guys in general.
The latest single, “Blue Skies,” came out April 21. Did it feel different or unusual to write a “glad cowboy” song?
(laughs) No, not really. I’ve always tried to keep a glimmer of hope in anything that I write, and it wasn’t much different than any of the other times.
I saw the video of you and your wife (actress Hassie Harrison) singing it on Instagram. Has she helped to influence this album a lot?
Yeah, of course. She’s a wonderful human being. She’s very funny. She’s a comedian, so we’re constantly laughing around the house. It’s nice to kind of be living on the sunny side of life, so to speak. (laughs)
I’ve read that it was difficult for you for a while to deal with “The Weary Kind.” What helped to change your mind about that song?
Just getting older and growing up. I think when I was younger in my 20s and trying to figure out life and who I was as a person, I was writing songs more kind of about me and what I was going through, and now those songs have kind of gotten out there and I get to hear the stories from fans and friends of what those songs mean to them and how they interpret them into their lives and what they get out of it and maybe how it’s helped them heal in a certain situation. It becomes more about getting out there and playing the songs, and knowing that it’s helping folks. That’s what I really get out of it these days and enjoying that. I’m happy to come out there and play them for those reasons. I’ve had folks ask me, well, why don’t you sing that song? That was kind of a hard time in my life, and sometimes it can be hard to relive that stuff every night over and over. But I think I’ve just gotten older and that’s an old story from a long time ago that I don’t live anymore. I’ve got a whole new story these days and living a different life so it’s easier to look at those songs and just think of them as, yeah, that was a long time ago. I don’t live that life anymore.
I guess it’s probably a little bit easier to let go of songs when other people put their own stories on top of them.
Yeah, I think it’s really important. You got to learn to let it go, for sure.
“Southside of Heaven” was written in a trailer home, so where were the majority of these new songs written?
All over the place, actually. We would go into the studio for two or three days at a time and just kind of jam and work on whatever songs I had going on at the moment. Some of them were written at home. Some of them were written in hotel rooms. Some of them were written in other places. Just kind of a mixed bag.
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You already had a successful music career before “Yellowstone,” but how did appearing on that show change the trajectory of your career?
I think I’m still finding that out. (laughs) This is kind of the first time I’ve put an album out since that and really gone on tour and played. So I’ll be interested to see what it’s like when I get out there.
Did you feel any kinship with the character Walker on the show?
Yeah, a little bit. I grew up riding bulls and ranching and cowboying and all that stuff. So I mean, that’s really kind of the only reason I think I got that. Originally, when I met (“Yellowstone” creator) Taylor (Sheridan), he just wanted me to write songs for the show. Then when he learned that I grew up doing a bunch of that stuff, that’s when he decided to try to write me into it. So I kind of lean on some of the stuff I experienced growing up and then a lot of those old characters that I was just around growing up, those old kind of crusty cowboys, you know? (laughs)
Besides “Austin City Limits,” you’ve done Red Rocks so are there any other places that you’d like to hit in the future?
There’s so many great venues across the country. I’m looking forward to them all, even some of the smaller bars. It really depends on the people that are there and sometimes what night of the week it is. So I always just try to stay open-minded about it. It’s not necessarily the place, it’s the people in them.
If you go
Who: Ryan Bingham and the Texas Gentlemen
When: 8 p.m. May 22
Where: Stage AE, North Shore
Tickets: Starting at $53.09, axs.com