2/25/08 Ryan Bingham & the Dead Horses @ 3rd & Lindsley, Nashville, Tenn.

“Y’all are pretty quiet. Y’all need a shot of whiskey or somethin’,” Ryan Bingham told the crowd at Nashville’s 3rd & Lindsley in his own particularly whiskey-soaked West Texas rasp. The mixed bag of cowboys, coeds, and old married couples had indeed been pretty silent throughout the night, but it hadn’t been for a lack of interest.“Y’all are pretty quiet. Y’all need a shot of whiskey or somethin’,” Ryan Bingham told the crowd at Nashville’s 3rd & Lindsley in his own particularly whiskey-soaked West Texas rasp. The mixed bag of cowboys, coeds, and old married couples had indeed been pretty silent throughout the night, but it hadn’t been for a lack of interest. Halfway through Bingham’s 90-minute set, the crowd sat in a sort of silent reverence of this up-and-coming young tunesmith, who, along with backing band the Dead Horses, had given one hell of a performance.

Bingham’s remark-the first of many whiskey-inspired exchanges of the night-came on the heels of a splendid rendition of “Boracho Station,” a mariachi piece that finds Bingham somewhere between Robert Earl Keen and Robert Rodgriguez. The permanent members of the Dead Horses all provide excellent support, but it was former Black Crowe Marc Ford-backing up Bingham on this leg of the tour-who deserved much of the praise. Ford, who also produced the group’s major label debut Mescalito, spent the evening lighting up epic solos on the bottleneck guitar, especially on “Hard Times” and the pre-Mescalito number “Gypsy Boy.”

What struck me most during the show-perhaps even more than the music-was Bingham’s authenticity. On paper, he seems like the most textbook of all country/western stereotypes. His whiskey-chugging, cowboy hat-wearing, down-home stage persona might seem like an exaggeration, if not a fabrication, to the second-hand observer. In person, though, no one questioned it. None of those subconscious alarms sounded-the ones we hear every time the made-up country star sings about how hard his life has been. Perhaps that’s where our “silent reverence” for Bingham was coming from. Everyone at 3rd and Lindsley trusted that he wasn’t lying to us like all the others.

True to form, though, Ryan had no desire for a crowd of mute admirers. “I think I’m about ready to get rowdy,” he said with a wry grin, grabbing the slide from Ford. Beckoning the folks sitting at their tables around the bar to join him up at the stage, he lifted up a shot to them, throwing it back before launching into a jacked-up version of “Sunshine.” For the first time in the show, the crowd joined in. Each person clapped and swayed as drummer Matt Smith laid down the song’s hard beats.

They ended with the rocker “Bread and Water.” As the Dead Horses brought the show home in true rock fashion, Ryan nearly lit his poor guitar on fire with his frenzied sliding. After a crescendo finish and a bow to the crowd, the band filed out for a post-gig smoke. The crowd, no longer content to sit in silence, screamed and begged for more. A little bit of his rowdy had rubbed off on everyone there.