Since honing his chops alongside many of the Texas/Oklahoma acts I used to follow, Ryan Bingham has signed with Lost Highway, released 2 critically acclaimed albums (the latest of which found my Top 20 Albums of 2009), and....Sunday Night, New Mexico born, Texas raised Ryan Bingham won himself a Golden Globe Award. He took home the trophy for Best Original Song for 'The Weary Kind,' a tune written by Bingham for the film Crazy Heart starring Jeff Bridges. This film caught my eye as soon as the trailer surfaced. With a cast including Bridges, Robert Duvall, Colin Farrell, and Maggie Gyllenhaal, it was sure to get attention, but surprisingly, focus has been geared toward the music in the film as much as the film itself. Legendary producer T-Bone Burnett oversaw the production of the soundtrack alongside Stephen Bruton.
One of the first things that stood out to me about Crazy Heart was the fact that it was director Scott Cooper's directorial debut. He adapted the script from a book of the same name written by Thomas Cobb. It follows Bad Blake, a fictional yet very familiar country singer who, at 57, seems to have run his course in the business. Cooper had always wanted to tell the life story of Merle Haggard but could never sort out the rights. After finding the book, he learned he could not only tell Haggard's, but also stories of Waylon and Kristofferson, "with a little bit of Billy Joe Shaver and Townes Van Zandt all mixed in." Jeff Bridges pulls off the weary character perfectly, so much that he also picked up a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama.
Trailer:
Pick up the soundtrack (out today) from Amazon. It includes tracks from Buck Owens, The Louvin Brothers, Waylon Jennings, Lightnin' Hopkins, Townes Van Zandt, and a healthy helping from the movie's stars (Bridges and Farrell).
Here's your Golden Globe Winning Song performed earlier this month on Letterman:
