Ryan Bingham – Tomorrowland

Ryan’s been unloading, and I for one couldn’t be more pleased. First he dumped his band, then he dumped his label, and finally took off that weary denim shirt, embracing a more aggressive sonically fueled release, one that’s still country around the edges, but ushers open a gate to a road he hasn’t traveled down before ... and I have the feeling it’s about to pay off big time.

There are many who are gonna try and tell you that this album lacks his signature songs, songs that reach out and grab your heart, but these people haven’t moved with Ryan Bingham, they’ve never seen the man play the tiny dives, or off the beaten path smokey roadhouses. These people only know the big stage Ryan Bingham, the Kris Kristofferson Ryan Bingham, the Ryan Bingham where you knew what you were gonna get, ‘cause he was filling a nitch, representing everyone other than himself. Just listen to “The Road I’m On,” and tell me you don’t hear a man who’s happy standing in his own boots, bathed in the warm light of a new sun, while rolling down a empty two lane highway with the wind in his hair. Or taste “Never Ending Show,” where he sings about getting off that rhinestone stage, striking out on his own, and chasing his own vision into the full light of the moon. And it ain’t just the words either, “Never Ending” musically rolls right across you, splintering the floorboards with new anthems, while blasting reverb filled chords from the rafters, and pounding at your door. Ryan’s said more than once, “I wanna make an album that’s fun to play live” ... and he seems to have done just that.

Having said all this, I will tell you, the man could’ve done a bit of trimming here and there, 'cause this album could have been a hands down classic if he’d keep the project to a mere ten songs, instead of adding a couple of bloated eight minute emotional and political monsters, songs that seem to go nowhere, or perhaps in too many directions at once. Regardless, you can program them out, and still have that bona-fide classic.

Review by Jenell Kesler