Ryan Bingham has built a career that moves between hard-won songwriting and on-screen work. He first drew mainstream attention with “The Weary Kind,” co-written with T-Bone Burnett for the 2009 film Crazy Heart — a song that earned him an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a Grammy — and later introduced himself to television audiences as Walker on Yellowstone. In a recent conversation with CBS Saturday Morning’s Anthony Mason, Bingham looked back on that journey and talked about his return to music.
They Call Us The Lucky Ones, Bingham’s new album made with The Texas Gentlemen, is his first solo record since 2019. Bingham says the project came when he was finally free of acting commitments — his contract with Paramount had expired — and he felt ready to go back into the studio. He describes his own songwriting process as episodic: he writes in bursts, often needing to live and experience life before a song will arrive. When the songs come, he says, they’re urgent and demand to be played.
Bingham also discussed the complicated relationship he’s had with his most famous song. “The Weary Kind” was born from personal material — particularly his grief about his father’s suicide — and for years he avoided performing it. He credits a moment at Willie Nelson’s picnic for shifting his perspective: after a performance he was urged to play the song because it resonated with people. Bingham says the experience taught him that the music could be meaningful beyond his own private experience, and that doing the song gave him a sense of purpose.
Acting and family life intersected with his music career. Bingham met his wife, actress Hassie Harrison, on the set of Yellowstone; she played Laramie on the show. He describes her as a creative influence who injects joy and humor into his life. Harrison’s encouragement has even changed the tone of some of his writing — she pushed him to add some “glad cowboy songs” to balance out the sad ones.
Bingham didn’t begin writing until his early 20s, and he says it took him some time to find the language that felt authentically his. Over the years he’s moved fluidly between genres and media while staying rooted in songs that come from lived experience. They Call Us The Lucky Ones is a reflection of that approach: collaborative, lived-in, and built to be played live. In the CBS Saturday Morning session he performed selections from the record and spoke about music’s continuing role in giving shape and meaning to his life.