Ryan Bingham
Mescalito
Lost Highway
It’s good to see that Lost Highway is continuing to take risks and sign new artists that meet its criteria of combining raw talent with unwavering authenticity. Ryan Bingham, like the label’s other newest signee Mary Gauthier, is not interested in softening the harsh truths of life’s injustices to keep his listener comfortable. What he may lack in poetic grace he makes up for with an unnerving ability to portray a world as rusted and worn-out as the New Mexican border towns he grew up in. At times Bingham sounds like a younger, tougher Ryan Adams, but in no way does that make Mescalito anything less than a stellar debut.
Dave Hayden
This article appears in Feb 7-13, 2008.