Presented by 91.3 FM WYEP, Drusky Entertainment, and Grey Area Productions
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For some artists, winning an Oscar would represent reaching a pinnacle. For Ryan Bingham, who took home the Academy Award for "The Weary Kind," his hauntingly beautiful theme song for the acclaimed film Crazy Heart, it instead represented a crossroads and a decision about which path to take. "When there are a lot of people around saying 'look, you have to capitalize on this and do something really commercial,' you might think about it for a second," admits the LA-based singer-songwriter. "But at the end of the day, there's not a chance in hell I could do that. It made me sick to my stomach just thinking about it. I couldn't get up in front of people and play a bunch of stuff that didn't mean anything to me."
Born in New Mexico and raised all across the Southwest, Ryan set out on his own at a young age, shuffling from town to town looking for a place to sleep between rodeos, day labor, and a weekly gig at a no-frills local bar. That spirit infused Bingham's Lost Highway debut, Mescalito, which won kudos from media outlets as varied as Rolling Stone, Esquire and The Washington Post - the latter noted "anyone seeking to invent a modern-day Texas troubadour couldn't do better than to replicate Ryan Bingham's life story." Indeed, the disc opened many illuminating windows into the soul of a man who, despite still being in his twenties, had already done plenty of living.
"None of us need a hit single or be famous rock stars," he concludes. "Just to be able to make a living playing music and not having to work an eight to five job digging holes makes me feel fortunate enough. I see so many kids living on the street or going off to Afghanistan, so I don't feel comfortable saying I'd been down any tougher road. I'm just another person out here trying to make it."
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with special guest
The Rustlanders
This show is all ages. Tickets are $15 in advance. Doors at 7pm.
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