Ryan Bingham & The Dead Horses - Roadhouse Sun (2009)

2009 album from the Texas-bred troubadour. Road House Sun is a hardscrabble collection that's at once unblinkingly personal and unapologetically political - the latter a new and bracingly vivid addition to Bingham's palette. Produced, like its predecessor, by one-time Black Crowes guitarist Marc Ford, Road House Sun manages to capture a feel that's rootsy without being retro. That has a lot to do with the singer's preternaturally wizened voice - which Bingham laughingly attributes to "Too many nights in the whiskey house" - not to mention Ford's approach behind the board.
From the Artist

"With all that's happened politically and economically in the last couple of years, I felt like there was a lot to say," explains the 28-year-old singer-songwriter. "As a young person, I felt like it was time to get involved, to write something that wasn't just about Saturday nights in bars. Things that were happening back then are still happening. Things keep repeating themselves."

"I think when I was younger, I had more of a grudge against society," he offers. "I grew up poor and I grew up angry about it. But at some point, you realize you can't just be pissed off - you have to try to do something positive, and this record is my way of doing that."