Ryan Bingham is back on the road and “The All Night Long Tour” has touched down here in uptown Oakland at the Fox Theater on Tuesday, 17 June. Bingham has remained busy in recent years, winning acclaim as an actor on the popular TV series Yellowstone and entering the spirits industry with Bingham’s Bourbon. He also released an underrated EP in 2023, titled Watch Out for the Wolf, as well as a live album in 2024, Live at Red Rocks.
Promo material for “The All Night Long Tour” notes that Bingham will be backed by the Texas Gentlemen, whom he’s been playing with for a few years (including the live album from Red Rocks). There’s also language in some promos suggesting that select venues will feature a pop-up bar with a “Bingham’s Bourbon Lounge”, which is tantalizing for whiskey fans.
However, it appears that California was not destined to be included, perhaps because the product isn’t yet being distributed in the Golden State. The only bottle of Bingham’s Bourbon visible is the one he and the band sip from on stage at one point. Thus, Bingham’s California fans will remain in need of a chance to sample the Texas whiskey and have to settle for options like Bulleit Bourbon Frontier Whiskey or Metallica‘s Blackened Whiskey, which the Fox does stock.
However, the fans can still depend on Bingham to deliver his soulful, bluesy troubadour tunes to the stage. “Got Damn Blues” from 2019’s American Love Song is an early highlight, an endearing tune with an acoustic-oriented sound that shines with Bingham’s vintage slide guitar work as he sings of being all alone out on the road, down at the crossroads.
A new song that Bingham dedicates to his longtime sound man is another winner, with an upbeat vibe and shimmering guitars. “Long Way From Georgia” from 2007’s debut album, Mescalito, finds Ryan Bingham in a downbeat, reflective mode, singing about being stuck at a truck stop with that weary tone he does so well, because he’s been there and done that.
“Tell My Mother I Miss Her So” from 2009’s stellar sophomore release Roadhouse Sun cranks up the energy level with another road song that gets the band going on a bluegrassy jam with a hot fiddle solo. Bingham introduces another new track as an impending single, and “Americana” sounds like classic Ryan Bingham, with references to getting laid off and medicating one’s sorrows with his lady, a six-pack of beer, and some “marijuana gummy bears”. The melancholy yet compelling “Wolves” shifts gears as Bingham sings a bluesy tune about standing his ground against bullies to keep those wolves at bay.
The set soars on the psychedelic majesty of “Bluebird”, a song from Roadhouse Sun that’s been one of Bingham’s top crowd pleasers ever since. The glistening, low-key intro has some attendees flashing back to seeing the Tedeschi Trucks Band perform their classic song “Midnight in Harlem” at the Fox Theater, a tune with a patient intro that builds toward a majestic jam. There’s a similar effect here, as Bingham and the band layer the guitars in a dreamy fashion over a soft groove, before the song ignites in the chorus section and moves into a blissful, guitar-driven jam for a magic carpet ride across the sonic stratosphere.
The “Bluebird” jam feels like a climactic set closer, but Bingham adds one more song to the set with “This Life” from Watch Out for the Wolf. It’s a great blend of blues and western vibes as he sings of trying to “live the best of this life”, despite having been wasted and borrowing time from roads traveled. It makes a great set closer with the cathartic vibe of enduring one’s troubles to get on by. It’s only too bad that the EP’s mystical opener, “Where My Wild Things Are”, doesn’t make it into the setlist.
The “evening with” format provides a set break with a chance to relax for a bit, though the absence of Bingham’s Bourbon Lounge is lamented once more. However, the band and the audience are both revved up and ready to go when the second set opens with “Let the Big Dog Eat”. It’s a new upbeat tune that has cowgirls dancing in the corner of the pit, as uptown Oakland starts to feel a bit like South Texas. The dancing continues on 2007’s “Sunrise”, a fan fave that conjures a singalong as Bingham sings of kissing such dancing ladies under the moonlight. The band gets into a hot jam here as Tuesday night starts to feel like a Saturday.
“Hard Times” is another classic from the debut album, enhanced by lush instrumentation from the Texas Gentlemen that includes sweet layers of fiddle, slide guitar, and saxophone to augment Ryan Bingham’s endearing vocals. When he sings matter-of-factly, “Your daddy wakes up in the liquor store, Yeah, that’s hard times”, you don’t doubt it’s based on a true story.
“Hallelujah” from 2010’s Junky Star strikes a chord with Bingham’s vibrant harmonica, boosting the tale of a drifter who only finds salvation after getting shot down and released to the next world. Bingham’s smash hit “The Weary Kind” from that album pairs well, as he sings the theme song from the 2009 film Crazy Heart, which won Oscars for both Jeff Bridges (Best Actor) and Bingham (Best Song, co-written with T-Bone Burnett). The group crank the energy level back up on “Southside of Heaven” to close the set. This perennial crowd pleaser starts with Bingham’s signature easy-going West Texas desperado vibe before building into a climactic jam.
The encore sequence features Bingham solo acoustic for a spirited sing-along on “Nobody Knows My Troubles”, another of his essential tunes that taps into the universal struggle. The sound explodes on the hard-rocking “Sunshine”, after Bingham says it was inspired by a poster of American Indian activist Leonard Peltier that he saw long ago on a trip to Paris. When Bingahm sings out, “Tell the darkness that you ain’t no slave,” it resonates even more after hearing that the song about imperial entanglements with the government was at least partly based on Peltier’s long struggle for social justice against Uncle Sam.
“Bread and Water” adds an exclamation point to the show as the Texas Gentlemen rock out and the crowd claps along while Bingham sings of touring around the Lone Star State. Ryan Bingham has been living the dream over the past 15 years or so, but the heartfelt sincerity in his songs makes it clear that it was a long and winding road. It’s great to see him back out on tour after his acting career seemed to have put music on the back burner at times. The quality of the new songs played tonight suggests the next chapter is just starting, hopefully also with wider distribution for Bingham’s Bourbon.