Junky Star

Product Description 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." Bingham puts that philosophy to the test in a big way on Junky Star, his third album on Lost Highway, which was recorded in a matter of days with producer T Bone Burnett, his collaborator on the Crazy Heart soundtrack. The disc delivers a bracing fusion of pensive, gravelly ballads - like "Hallelujah," which is not a Leonard Cohen cover, but his own take on mortality, delivered from the other side of the veil - and raw, rock'n'roll cuts that showcase Bingham's incisive, darkly compelling lyrical bent. Bingham channels a number of unique spirits over the course of the album, leading with his sensitive side on "The Poet" and kicking out the jams on the Waylon-meets-Keith Richards "All Choked Up Again." Elsewhere, as in songs like "Depression" - a vivid evocation of our current social climate that'd have Woody Guthrie nodding in approval - and the album's poignant title track, Bingham applies his wizened rasp with precise strokes, wringing emotion from every note. From the Artist "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." About the Artist Born in New Mexico and raised all across the Southwest, he 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.
ASIN: B003QTDEQ4
VSKU: LFV.B003QTDEQ4.VG
Condition: Very Good
Author/Artist:Ryan Bingham
Binding: Audio cd
Note: Any images shown are stock photographs and product may differ from what is shown.
Condition Notes: CD Very Good - Case is in great condition. Comes with all artwork. Disc quality is near perfect. Guarantee in working condition.