The artist: Ryan Bingham

The album: Roadhouse Sun (Lost Highway)

The spin: The reason Ryan Bingham songs sound so good on the car radio is he makes movin’ music. Listen to Roadhouse Sun on your computer and your legs will dance under the desk. This dense and driving album, the prematurely hoarse 28-year-old’s second on Lost Highway, will send you out for a six-pack or at least a ride with the windows down. Gotta get out of the house and play it loud!

Although he’s a former West Texas bullrider signed to a Nashville label, Bingham is no country act. His dust-choked vocals might prompt easy comparisons to Tom Waits, but Bingham isn’t really of the singer-songwriter variety, though he has a way with words. He’s a rocker in a cowboy hat, pure and simple, working in sonic textures as thick as a mix of hard living and hard partying.

The album establishes its Southern rock roots early, with opening track “Day Is Done” going from a wispy tease to a gutbucket rocker in about 15 seconds. “When the day is done/ I was born a bad man’s son,” Bingham sings, as Corby Schraub’s slide work approaches the fervor of sacred steel. Smart move to record with his touring musicians, who tear it up night after night and earn the front cover credit.

Drummer Matt Smith is a steadying force throughout, driving mandolin-flavored songs such as “Tell My Mother I Miss Her So” and “Country Roads” to keep the album’s tempo lively. There’s an underlying rage to Roadhouse, brought up top on the epic-sounding couplet of the politically charged “Endless Ways” diving into “Change Is,” with its furious twist of vocals and guitars.

Tender moments come with the solo acoustic “Snake Eyes,” which Bingham delivers with dramatic flair, saying more with his voice breaking than with the lyrics about what it’s like when all the love is gone. “Rollin’ Highway Blues” is another acoustic track seemingly placed just so the rockers don’t run into each other and break something.

Producer Marc Ford (ex-Black Crowes), who also helmed previous LP Mescalito, deserves credit for creating a thick sound that doesn’t slow things down, even on the thudding “Bluebird,” a song that never had a chance.

The grade: A-

– Michael Corcoran

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