Ryan Bingham does Letterman, ‘Junky Star’ getting raves

I don’t know if everyone caught “The Late Show” last night, but last year’s Best Original Song winner, Ryan Bingham, took the stage with his band The Dead Horses to rock out the first single on their new album, “Junky Star.”  The album, produced by Oscar co-winner T Bone Burnett, released today.

Here’s a clip from the show.  A few rave review bites of the new album after the jump.

Margaret Wappler at Pop & Hiss:

Whatever specter California casts, thank heavens it doesn’t add polish. Bingham’s voice still sounds like a gut-shot animal dragging itself across the road. It can bend toward a moment of relief, like when he sings “Hallelujah,” or it can fold into sorrow, as it does on “Yesterday’s Blues.” Burnett wisely stands back and lets Bingham, the former bull rider, bleed or buck in the spotlight.

Jerry Shriver at USA Today:

The most authentic-sounding troubadour in ages could have gone Hollywood (or Nashville) after winning an Oscar this year for co-writing (with T Bone Burnett) the rather tame Crazy Heart theme song, The Weary Kind.  Instead, he and producer Burnett saddled up the frisky Dead Horses and headed right back into the desolate, depressed and directionless landscape that he mined for 2009’s outstanding Roadhouse Sun. The result is another strong collection of tough, dark Americana ballads.

From across the pond, Neil Spencer at The Guardian’s Observer:

Bingham and his band play a mix of sinewy country-rock and downbeat ballads, with Springsteen, Creedence and Townes Van Zandt among their touchstones. Bingham’s gravelly vocals ooze experience and integrity, and songs such as “Depression” and “Direction of the Wind” cast an acute eye on the US’s social decay. A talent for the times.

Melinda Newman at HitFix:

Bingham isn’t doing anything that Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Steve Earle and Bruce Springsteen haven’t done before, but that he can even stand comfortably within their shadows here is an accomplishment worth celebrating.

Whitney Pastorek at Entertainment Weekly:

…whether backed by simple guitar or a full-band ramble, Bingham’s intricately detailed portraits of the wayward and lost are some of the best short stories you’ll hear all year.