Ryan Bingham Gives Crazy Heart Musical Weight
Since it's only out in limited release, I haven't seen Crazy Heart, the new film about a fictional country singer-songwriter starring Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Robert Duvall. But I'm pretty much counting the days until it comes to Nashville -- mostly for the music. Produced by T Bone Burnett, the soundtrack (available Jan. 19) features tunes written specially for the movie, along with songs from Buck Owens, the Louvin Brothers, Lightnin' Hopkins, Waylon Jennings, Townes Van Zandt, Billy Joe Shaver and Sam Phillips. After listening to an advance copy during my holiday drive, there are a lot of nice surprises -- like the singing voices of Bridges, Duvall and Collin Farrell -- but one song turned in by Ryan Bingham stands above and beyond the rest. It's the film's haunting theme song, "The Weary Kind," and it makes my skin crawl with delight every time I hear it. I can't wait to see how they present it on screen.
I'm imagining a slow-motion sequence with some kind of triumphant finish that would fit the song's don't-give-up-now message, but maybe that's a little too pedestrian. To me, the song is so big it has its own gravity, so hopefully that will come through in the story. Aside from hearing Bingham's final cut on the Crazy Heart Web site, you can also catch a solo performance and watch a quick interview about the song. Here's what Burnett had to say about "The Weary Kind": "If it wasn't a great song, the whole movie was going to fall apart." Since both the song and movie have already gotten Golden Globe nods and the buzz says they should expect some Oscar attention, too, I guess it'll do.
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Redmaz says:
I have been waiting for this movie too, and especially the soundtrack. Most of the artists are some of my all time favorites, and Ryan Bingham contnues to put out some very good music, but does anyone notice anything peculiar about that picture above? I’ll wait to see if anyone else picks up on it. Just curious how observant you are.
Jeff Dykhuis says:
Love Ryan Bingham, not sure what is strange about that photo other than the guitar neck is very short (seems that way) i don’t see many frets there like the photo was cropped somehow.
kevan says:
Dot is on third fret and not on the fourth fret where it should be.
kevan says:
Correction on last post; dot should be between fourth and fifth fret.
rockerbillie says:
Back to the real reason this story is on here. Jeff Bridges is terrific. He portrays the character very well and manages to sing too. Colin is less in tune, but always manages to look cool.
That is a real concert audience when Bad shows up to play for Tommy Sweet. It was filmed when Toby and Montgomery Gentry were playing Albuquerque.
Peacock Queen says:
Anything Robert Duvall is in, I will be going to see. Can’t wait to hear the soundtrack. Jeff Bridges looks like Kris Kristofferson in that photo, at least to me.
rockerbillie says:
Peacock, I thought that too, that the photo resembles Kris K…until you see the movie. Jeff portrays ‘Bad’ with more edge and he has his own style.
rockerbillie says:
… and I always read the lines on the large movie promo posters. For Crazy Heart, it reads the ‘Harder the Life, the sweeter the song’. They sure got that right. Gotta LUV all the artists that go on the road and play great music.
oldhabit says:
That’s a 12 fret guitar(the number of frets from nut to body),the dots are right- most guitars are 14 fret, there would be a dot on the first and the third(and not always)
Hes just holding it into the right side of his body making it look too small in the pic