Yahoo! Music has an exclusive in-studio performance of West Texas ex-rodeo cowboy Ryan Bingham performing “Southside of Heaven” and a video interview.(via 9513)

Ryan Bingham - Southside Of Heaven 

Music sales are down in most genres but the Americana and roots sales look strong for 2007. The labels still sue fans, bitch and whine about online piracy which is only half of the story. The other half is the cultivation of mediocre talent that produces “music” with the shelf life of nachos. If you look at the mainstream Country music field it’s as if we are in the 70’s and all we have is the Monkees or the Bay City Rollers and there were no Hendrix or Dylan to balance it all out.

Luckily there’s the borderland of Americana and roots music that brings creativity, diversity as well as a respect for history and a calculated abandonment for rules in equal amounts. Americana is the genetic mutation that makes the musical breed heartier, healthier and more of a mutt.

2007 brought in some great new talent and allowed a legend to bid a proper goodbye. All picks are my own and reflect my taste and bias in all it’s wondrous white-bred glory. Now on with the list…

10. Southern Culture On The Skids - “Countrypolitan Favorites” - Featuring 15 tunes typically associated with other artists SCOTS burns a hole through their hillbilly shtick to show the exceptional band they really are. SCOTS deliver the Kinks “Muswell Hillbilly,” T. Rex’s “Life’s a Gas,” and the Byrds‘ “Have You Seen Her Face” with respect and passion and the cover of George Jones’ ode to the joys of wife swapping, “Let’s Invite Them Over” is a classic reinterpretation on an old infamous chestnut. This release is a country-fried delight!

9. Ridley Bent - “Buckles and Boots” - Canadian hick-hop gone country traditionalist Ridley Bent came out of left field for me. I was aware of his fellow countryman and partner in rhyme (rap humor, heh!) Buck 65 but had not heard of the Halifax born, Alberta bred singer/songwriter blends the right amount of Bakersfield and Texas outlaw to tell clever stories for the head and the heart.

8. Jason Isbell - “Sirens of the Ditch” - Riding with the Drive By Truckers during their move from the country-rock fringes into what amounts to as close to mainstream success, Jason Isbell decided to take his own path. Many of the catchiest and heartfelt songs on recent DBT releases have been Isbell penned, Outfit, Dank/Manuel and the classic Decoration Day. It then comes as no surprise that Isbell carried through that keen-eyed and passion onto his solo debut and features DBT bassist Shonna Tucker, drummer Brad Morgan, and DBT founder/front man Patterson Hood, who also co-produced this release on almost every track.

7. Robert Plant / Alison Krause - “Raising Sand” - When I got word that Robert Plant was kicking around Nashville and working with bluegrass chanteuse and John Wait duet partner Alison Krauss I met the news with trepidation and dread. Would Plant approach American roots music with the historical revisionism Led Zeppelin brought to Delta blues or would it be a gilded palace of cheese? Happily Plant channels the spirit of the hills and prairies and let’s the crystal voiced Krauss set the tone for the surprisingly wonderful release.

6. Th Legendary Shack Shakers - “Swampblood” - Still one of the best live bands crisscrossing America today, Th Legendary Shack Shakers last installment of their “Tentshow Trilogy” has the band going all out with Pentecostal ferver and Dixie-core abandon. Most American genres from the past century are poured into a grinder and rendered into a frantically dark-Gothic elixir for the restless soul.

5. John Fogerty - “Revival” - A boy born in the Bay Area (not on the bayou) certainly earned his roots cred wailing his backwoods caterwaul fronting Credence Clearwater Revival. As the title makes apparent, “Revival” harkens back to the CCR days more then any other Fogerty solo work (due mostly to litigious reasons) and the man sounds more newly fired-up and impassioned, comfortable as a well-worn flannel shirt, and shows Fogerty as the roots-rock master he is.

4. Kelly Willis - “Translated From Love” - Somewhere between Americana and British pop Kelly Willis’ “Translated From Love” is a country pop masterpiece. Tight, smart hooks coupled with traditional instruments compliment Willis clear stream vocals to make this the best release for her so far.

3b. Patty Griffin - “Children Running Through” - Patty Griffin has never sounded more confident and transcends songwriting to arrive somewhere near artistic perfection.

3a. Dale Watson - “From the Cradle to the Grave” - I published this list and then it occurred to me that I had overlooked one of the best releases of the year. Maybe it was the early 2007 drop date, maybe it was the beer…whatever…so now I’m going to punt with a 3a, 3b (my blog, my rules!) Dale goes old school, old testament school, on this excellent harkening back to country troubadours of the past.

2. Ryan Bingham - “Mescalito” - Ryan Bingham sounds more ragged and rugged than his 25 years on this earth might lead you to believe. “Mescalito” is sun-soaked and West Texas dust choked and nails the right balance between outlaw country and rock and roll swagger.
This is the sound of the lonesome road, the rowdy roadhouse and the front porch in one package.

1. Porter Wagoner - “Wagonmaster” - Marty Stuart has earned a special bar stool in honky-tonk heaven for all he’s created, championed and, not least of all, helping Porter Wagoner create his finale (there’s a stool right near by for Anti records for releasing it when Nashville turned up their noses). I was lucky enough to see Marty and Porter perform in New York City just before “Wagonmaster” was released. Porter was visibly moved and humbled that the sold out show proved that even after 55 years of recording people still held the “Thin Man from the West Plains” in the highest regard. “Wagonmaster” is a crystallization of a what made Wagoner a country music legend, Puritan aesthetic, engaging storytelling of the lost and the hardscrabble. At the age of 80 Wagoner went out with honor and dignity. Unfortunately he had to look outside Nashville, in all their market-tested, plastic wisdom, to do so.

Honorable mention:

Dwight Yoakam - Dwight Sings Buck
Levon Helm - Dirt farmer
Miranda Lambert - Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Joe Whyte - Devil in the Details
Pam Tillis - Rhinestoned
Shooter Jennings - The Wolf
Avett Brothers - Emotionalism
Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger
Joe Ely Happy - Songs From Rattlesnake Gulch
Steve Earle - Washington Square Serenade
Old Crow Medicine Show - Big Iron World
Iron & Wine - The Shepherd’s Dog
Kendel Carson - Rearview Mirror Tears
Cadillac Sky - Blind Man Walking
Willie Nelson -Songbird
Betty LaVette - Scene of the Crime
Chris Knight - The Trailer Tapes
Hackensaw Boys - Look Out
Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Ray Price - Last Of The Breed
Grayson Capps - Wail & Ride
Jim Lauderdale - Bluegrass
Robbie Fulks - Revenge!
Merle Haggard - The Bluegrass Sessions

Brad at Galleywinter has posted at early list of 2007’s top 10 and Ryan Bingham’s excellent sun and dust-choked Mescalito tops the list. I haven’t heard everything on Brad’s list but with with Bingham and Drew Kennedy given top billing I’ll be checking on the rest of the list.

(tip of the hat to the 9513)

says that of all the music that was released this year Mescalito impacted him the most.

This is a great song and I think this excellent video does a great job of enhancing the hot dusty vibe I love about it. Thanks to the 9513 for a heads up.

If you find yourself in the New York City area head over to the Bowery Ballroom and catch Ryan Bingham opening for the Drive By Truckers. The show is sold out but don’t despair, Craigslist and the front of the venue before the show can sometimes pan out. See you there!

Being a Texas expat in New York City I love my time in the big city. There’s nowhere like it on Earth and the shows I catch in one 20 mile radius is unlikely anywhere else. But heat, dust and salsa run through my veins and I reach out for small things to ground me in my Native yearnings - Great Tex-Mex or BBQ, a local honky tonk, a stray pair of boots and Stetson walking on the West Side.

West Texas Native Ryan Bingham is a little slice of Texas, real Texas, for this Lone-Star-expat-in-New-York-City’s ears. The searing asphalt on an empty highway stretching ahead, throat-parching dust, Mexico at the margins, it’s all there if you close your eyes and listen.

For a man in his mid-twenties Bingham sounds like he’s lived well beyond his years. A live lived in hardship, family upheavals, poverty, alcohol and drug abuse, riding bulls in Monterey and brushing dangerously with the Mexican mafia - all the elements to build great songs, assuming you can survive it. Bingham’s musical influences came from absorbing teachings of an old mariachi player. Not to mention his indulgence in his uncle’s vast record collection, seeping up diverse influences like The Rolling Stones, The Marshall Tucker Band, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Commander Cody, Allman Brothers, Red Steagall, & The Band.

All the influenced are stewed up in to spicy, tasty effect on Mescalito.

The opener, Southside of Heaven sets the tone. Acoustic gallop, pedal steel cry, lonesome harmonica. With it’s refrain”When “I die lord, put my soul up on a train.” Hillbilly poetry!

The Other Side is a country rocker in the vein on Exile era Stones or the Faces complete with slinky slide guitar. Bread and Water starts like a cathedral piece but quickly kicks it into a bi-lingual Led Zep “Bron-Y-Aur Stomp”-style slide-guitar and hand-clap driven song about seeing this great country from the ground up.

“Don’t Wait for Me ” Is a soulful dobro, mandolin laced study in loss where Bingham’s weathered voice really plays to full effect.

“Boracho Station” - Spanish influenced tale about the search for Mexican gold and “Sunshine” is a rousing hootenanny that also veers into big-rock-sound Led Zeppelin rock terrain featuring a nice slide guitar. Wailing Applachian-style fiddle waling throughout.

“Hard Times” sound like a song that might have been had The Band worked with of Crazy Horse to produce a blast of sound bootstrapping song about hard times and the nobility of self-respect.

The theme’s of Mescalito are not groundbreaking, but they’re also not trite. I’d take someone like Ryan Bingham and his crack band the Dead Horses (Matt Smith – Drums and Percussion, Corby Schaub – Electric Guitar, Mandolin, Kettle Drums and Background Vocals, Jeb Venable – Bass), with superb production by Marc Ford (ex-guitarist - Black Crows), interpreting influences like Billy Joe Shaver, Willie Nelson and Ray Wiley Hubbard than most pop-country acts interpreting nothing more profound or enduring as what sold a million unites of their last release. Every few years it takes the likes of Ryan Bingham to shame Nashville into facing what it chokes out of studios every day. Let’s hope they’re paying attention.

Ryan Bingham “On the Road”

Some upcoming New York shows foe all you city Hillbillys and Betties.

Bowery Ballroom

Fri 09/14/07 Pieta Brown
Fri 09/14/07 Teddy Thompson

Sat 09/29/07 Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers
Sat 09/29/07 The Alternate Routes

Wed 10/10/07 Jason Isbell
Wed 10/10/07 The Whigs

Tue 10/23/07 Shooter Jennings

Fri 10/26/07 Drive-By Truckers
Fri 10/26/07 Ryan Bingham

The Mercury Lounge

Sat 11/10/07 David Kilgour
Sat 11/10/07 Euros Childs
Sat 11/10/07 Laura Cantrell

Town Hall

Wed 09/26/07 Allison Moorer
Wed 09/26/07 Steve Earle

Tue 10/02/07 Fionn Regan
Tue 10/02/07 Lucinda Williams
Wed 10/03/07 Fionn Regan
Wed 10/03/07 Lucinda Williams
Thu 10/04/07 Fionn Regan
Thu 10/04/07 Lucinda Williams

Sat 10/27/07 Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver
Sat 10/27/07 Jack Cooke
Sat 10/27/07 Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys