Ryan Bingham Announces New Tour Dates

If you are like us (and lets face it, you should be like us) you've been spinning Ryan Bingham's new album Roadhouse Son and loving every slide guitar and mandolin pick on it.

It looks like Bingham and his band The Dead Horses are hitting the road again (did they ever leave the road?)for the month of July. Here are some new dates...

July 8 - Neumeier's Rib Room - Ft. Smith, AR
July 9 - Duck Room - St. Louis, MO
July 10 - Radio Radio - Indianapolis, IN
July 11 - Martyr's - Chicago, IL
July 13 - Varsity Theater - Minneapolis, MN
July 14 - House Of Bricks - Des Moines, IA
July 15 - Sokol - Omaha, NE
July 17 - The Aardvark - Ft. Worth, TX
July 18 - The Blue Light - Lubbock, TX
July 19 - Brew Co. - Santa Fe, NM
July 21 - Martini Ranch - Scottsdale, AZ
July 22 - Casbah - San Diego, CA

New Ryan Bingham Album Streaming

The new Ryan Bingham and the Dead Horses album Roadhouse Sun is now streaming from the Lost Highway Records site. Check it out here.

The new album will be released June 3rd. Go get it.

New Ryan Bingham Album May 5th

Finally, some news worth reporting. May 5th is apparently the drop date for Ryan Bingham's second album, Roadhouse Sun on Lost Highway Records. The album is again produced by Marc Fuckin' Ford (ex Black Crowes) and utilizes Bingham's backing band, The Dead Horses.

Here's the official press release text that is currently floating around on the interwebs:

"Fans of gritty, sun drenched tales from the road rejoice! Texas/New Mexico neo-trad troubadour Ryan Bingham and his band The Dead Horses (Corby Schaub - guitar, Matt Smith – drums, Elijah Ford – bass) are readying Roadhouse Sun his sophomore release from Lost Highway records to be released on May 5. Roadhouse Sun is a follow up to Bingham’s 2007 much lauded debut Lost Highway Mescalito.

Mescalito producer and former Black Crowes guitarist, Marc Ford returns as producer on Road House Sun. And the PR material states that” Bingham covers some new subject matter on Roadhouse Sun as he challenges political accountability in Endless Ways and notes eye-opening similarities to our dark past in Dylan’s Hard Rain. Bingham has established himself as a deeply personal songwriter with a knack for painting vivid pictures in his songs. These images come to life in everything from his bluesy roadhouse romps such as Hey Hey and Day Is Done, to the epic Change Is to the dustbowl hymns Rollin Highway Blues, Country Roads and Snake Eyes.”

As big time fans of Bingham's debut album Mescalito, we are geeked to say the least at the news of this album release. You can go here to listen to snippets of songs from the new album.

Album Review: Cardinology

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals

Cardinology

Lost Highway Records

Buy Cardinology

On Cardinology, Ryan Adams and the Cardinals continue to explore similar musical styles and lyrical themes established on 2007's Easy Tiger album. But where Easy Tiger showcased Adams' strong songwriting and a new sober focus in album continuity and song sequencing, Cardinology seems to rely on the tight musical interplay of the Cardinals as a band with songwriting quality coming in as a secondary thought.

Cardinology begins with the self-help acoustic leanings of "Born Into a Light”. Adams and the Cardinals utilize soaring vocal harmonies and atmospheric pedal steel guitar to give the song a drifty Grateful Dead/country rock vibe. For an album that was hyped to represent the “rock” side of Adams and the Cardinals as they are in a live concert setting, this is a breezy way to begin the album.

First single "Fix It" has a nice late-night-in-the-city vibe with its reggae guitar rhythm and reverb-soaked production until the chorus bursts into a pure Neil Young-style country rock assault, only to be reined back in by the initial reggae riff. At this point, the album begins to pick up steam and it appears the rock side of Adams and the Cardinals is going to be showcased.

"Magick" is a driving rocker that momentarily puts aside Adams usual lyrical fixations of loss, love and introspection for a song about the simple joys of listening to music on the radio (and vinyl). For a talented lyricist, this isn’t his best outing, but the fun factor of the song outweighs the simplicity of the lyrics.

Adams conjurs his best Bono-esque vocal inflection on the 80s inspired rocker “Cobwebs”, which seems to have been depleted of all its energy in comparison to recent live renditions. Again, if this album is supposed to represent the power and energy of the band’s electric live performances, it is tempered by the dry production.

Sadly, the back half of Cardinology slows down considerably, but the lyrical quality and songwriting improves on songs like “Sink Ships” and “Natural Ghost” which see Adams using vivid imagery to paint his emotional portraits rather than the direct, self-help lyrical leanings of earlier cuts like “Go Easy” and “Born Into a Light”.

Cardinology is not a bad album by any means and the die hard fans will no doubt soak it up. If anything, several songs on Cardinology breeze by and feel like sketches that have yet to be fully explored by the band, and if there is a band on the music scene today that has the ability to dive head-first into the musical possibilities of a song, it’s the Cardinals.

The Cardinals as a band have given Adams the musical dexterity and camaraderie to explore the many genres he likes to jump in and out on a whim. Knowing what this group of musicians is capable of live, it’s a shame they didn’t translate that ragged glory and musical muscle to tape. The good news is that with Adams’ prolific songwriting talents, it won’t be long before a new, different album is available for fans to enjoy.

Cardinology confirmed, "Fix It" to radio today.

Ryan Adams & the Cardinals have confirmed the upcoming release of their new album, Cardinology.

U.S. psych rock zombies the Cardinals release a new record titled Cardinology on October 27th in UK/Europe and 28th October in the USA "the study of guitar astrology and jam technology. And with songs even." Recorded at Electric Lady Studios in NYC produced by the Cardinals and Tom Schick.

1. Born Into A Light
2. Go Easy
3. Fix It
4. Magick
5. Cobwebs
6. Let Us Down Easy
7. Crossed Out Name
8. Natural Ghost
9. Sink Ships
10. Evergreen
11. Like Yesterday
12. Stop

Preceding the album will be the first single, ‘Fix It’, which will be released on radio on September 23. Available for digital download on oct. 7th, according to Lost Highway.

The band will celebrate the release with a performance on The Late Show With David Letterman on October 29.

You can preview a snippet of the first single "Fix It" at Adam's own Foggy blog.

Adams has even posted a personal note on fansite RyanAdamsArchive.com that seems to imply this is the last album the band will deliver to Lost Highway Records and that he lost the battle with Lost Highway to attribute the new album to "The Cardinals" and not "Ryan Adams & the Cardinals".