Ryan Bingham has never been interested in faking it.
Backstage at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, the singer-songwriter speaks plainly about the one thing he fears most: losing the human bond with the fans who have followed him for nearly 25 years. For Bingham, authenticity is not branding. It is survival. If he does not believe what he sings, he figures no one else will either.
That philosophy anchors They Call Us the Lucky Ones, his first studio album since 2019 and his first full-length project with the Texas Gentlemen. The record arrives May 15 and signals both a creative reset and a reaffirmation of identity. Across ten tightly crafted tracks, nine written by Bingham, he moves from tender reflections on love to gritty storytelling rooted in borderland realities. One moment he is chronicling narcotics trafficking in Mexico, the next he is leaning into playful intimacy. The range feels deliberate, yet unforced.
The album almost did not happen. After years balancing music with his acting role on Yellowstone, Bingham found himself writing less frequently. A 2023 concept EP, created during a solitary stretch in Montana, kept the flame alive but did not fully reignite it. The spark returned during the Last Waltz Tour, where nightly collaborations with elite musicians reminded him why he started in the first place. Conversations and bus rides with artists such as Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench opened the door to fresh inspiration.
In that environment, Bingham realized something else: he was no longer a solo act supported by hired hands. The Texas Gentlemen had become his band. What began as a no-rehearsal gamble at Billy Bob’s Texas in 2021 quickly evolved into a creative partnership built on chemistry and trust. Their ease together is now embedded in the DNA of They Call Us the Lucky Ones, including a new track that playfully doubles as the group’s origin story.
The shift is not only musical. It is personal. Bingham met actress Hassie Harrison on the set of Yellowstone, and their relationship, culminating in marriage in 2024, reshaped his creative outlook. Harrison encouraged him to lighten the emotional load of his songwriting, challenging the catalog of heartbreak with something brighter. The result is Blue Skies, a love song that strips sentiment down to its clearest form.
Still, Bingham’s past remains central to his story. The Weary Kind, written with T Bone Burnett for the 2009 film Crazy Heart, won an Academy Award in 2010. Yet for years, he struggled to perform it live, the song intertwined with the grief of his father’s suicide. A conversation with a lighting director at a Willie Nelson event shifted his perspective. Fans, he realized, were finding healing in the same lyrics that once felt unbearable. Returning the song to his set list marked a turning point. It was no longer solely his burden to carry.
That sense of shared ownership defines Bingham’s current chapter. The Still Gettin’ Away With It tour launches May 22 in Pittsburgh, continuing an evening-with format that spotlights both the depth of his catalog and the cohesion of the Texas Gentlemen. Offstage, he has relocated back to Texas with Harrison, committed to building a creative home base in Fort Worth where the band can rehearse, write, and simply exist together.
For an artist who once stepped away from music’s center stage, this feels less like a comeback and more like a recalibration. Bingham is not chasing superstardom. He is chasing connection. And in an era when country and Americana audiences increasingly crave something real, that may be the most powerful move he could make.