Roadhouse Sun

Raspy voiced Ryan Bingham fills his second album with gusto, grit and groove. Mark Ford of Black Crowes fame mixes in timeless old-school production values, so Roadhouse Sun isn’t a huge departure from its predecessor Mescalito, but the lyrics are noticeably stewed in more political angst. A 12-string Rickenbacker jangle introduces “Dylan’s Hard Rain,” a song that contemplates the man’s 1962 song. “Country Roads” is raw Texas country rock loaded with more hooks than a tackle box. Rest assured that Bingham’s not just some twenty-something donning a western shirt and playing musical cowboys. He grew up in bucolic Texas but lived alone since his mid-teens when he worked as a ranch hand. He learned to play guitar from a mariachi neighbor — shortly after which he began playing the rodeo circuit where he often slept in the back of his truck when not couch surfing between boarder towns. A true product of hard living, the fevered, distorted twang of songs such as “Endless Ways” can make Drive-By Truckers sound like Conor Oberst.