The Eye of the Hurricane

The Human Jukebox

Ryan — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:53:47 +0000

When Walt Wilkins and Jason Eady play together, they do this really cool thing where they take a sheet of paper, write some topics on it and play random songs based on what is on the paper. Apparently last week, they forgot to bring paper, but still pulled it off by building the “Human Jukebox” in front of the stage. You walk up, place a dollar on the barrel of the topic you want them to play (Haggard, Drinking, Trains, Loving, Cheating, Killing and Covers) and they’d play it…. Brilliant.

Classical Music Workshops at the White House

Ryan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:58:15 +0000

Excellent piece on what the Whitehouse is doing with music and young, growing musicians.

…we have to show that every type of music has a character and bring that to people that we perform for…

Christmas Photos – In October

Ryan — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:45:39 +0000

The cooler weather we’ve had here in Texas has begun to make me remember that living in Texas isn’t just one, year-round, season. We do have another season, called Christmas, and it’s our family’s yearly tradition to go out and have our photos taken before my winter beard begins taking shape. Christy is a sweetheart for letting me look like I’m homeless for a few months… so it’s the least I can do to for her.

In the past, we have used some of our friends that are amazing photographers, but this year we wanted to get to know & support more people in our city, so we branched out and found a new friend that owns Englexas Photography. Debbie may very well be one of the most fun and creative photographers I’ve worked with… she has an amazing eye and skill with her camera that I haven;t seen in too many people. We wanted a very textured/warehouse district feel to the shoot and even just the previews have blown my expectations out of the water. Check out the previews she posted on her blog that she shot us of us!

{family session} the hargrave family

[Photo] Ryan Bingham in Corpus

Ryan — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:34:28 +0000

Shooting Videos – First Look

Ryan — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:20:26 +0000

I’ve been playing around with video for a year or so and have really been enjoying it. Over the past few months a group of us here in Sugar Land have been talking about getting together to combine all our equipment and knowledge and start making films and doing interviews of folks around the community.

Last night was the first time we finally all got together to set up and run through some shots and it was way more fun that I thought it would be. I can’t wait to get moving and show off the results of some of the cool ideas we had last night. Oh and… there may or may not be a video that will be floating around of me telling some stories while dialing in the cameras. O_o

Big thanks to the folks over at 1049 Eldridge for use of the space and to all the guys that know way more about this than I do. For you geeks out there, we were shooting with a Canon HD XL-H1 and a Nikon D90 DSLR in HD video mode. So yeah… artistic videos coming out of the suburbs… should be fun!

William Elliot Whitmore

Ryan — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:55:33 +0000

Words can’t explain this guy. He was recommended to me 2 days ago and I can’t stop searching videos and audio. Amazing.

[The Classics] – Cliff Burton

Ryan — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 06:23:25 +0000

A week ago we remembered the tragic death of 24 year old Cliff Burton, who was the original bass player for Metallica when they first got their start almost 30 years ago. While Cliff is arguably one of the best bass players to have ever lived, you may be wondering why am I writing about him and how does he relate to “The Classics” series of what formed and molded my love for music.

I can remember getting a dubbed VHS tape of a video that was a tribute to the death of Cliff Burton sometime in high school, to which we all huddled around the TV to watch a grainy video with poor audio and my buddy yelling “Fix the tracking!” during most of it. It was like we struck a gold mine of illegal drugs off the black market! We were all in love with Metallica’s current album (well all of them actually), but we had only heard rumors about Cliff’s legendary live playing and this video was chock full of it. With no YouTube or internet.. this was our only look into who this man was.

We probably played that video 8 times that night (all night actually), rewinding the scene of Cliff playing “For Whom The Bell Tolls” about 50 times. I had no clue about playing music, let alone playing bass.. but I knew that guy was a master at what he did.

To sum it up, Cliff Burton was the first musician that caught my attention. And he wasn’t the lead guitarist… he wasn’t the good looking lead singer… he was the guy that was doing what he was meant to do… play music and play it well. Here’s a video of alot of Cliff bass solo’s… And if you watch nothing else, watch the first 60 seconds of him playing that “For Whom The Bell Tolls” solo.

Jason Eady at Dosey Doe

Ryan — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:57:14 +0000

The Trishas – Whistlin Past The Graveyard

Ryan — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 21:19:09 +0000

The Trishas were up in Nashville this past week when my friends over at Music Fog caught up with them. The Trishas (comprised of Jamie Wilson, Liz Foster, Kelley Mickwee, and Savannah Welch) have been making huge waves across Texas the last few months where the buzz has pretty much, “You need to go see them!!”.

There are very few recordings out there and I’m glad there is finally one that is good enough quality to spread around and back up some of the claims we’ve all been making. Here they are singing, Whistlin Past The Graveyard.

Completely Immersed

Ryan — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:12:15 +0000

I spent a relaxing Labor Day weekend at home and it gave me some time to reflect on all that has been going on in my life. It’s been a good type of busy lately. It seems I’m learning more and more about my family, life, God, work, music & a ton of other things.

I read a blog post last month where a guy asked his readers to list a few things they were enjoying and gave away a new CD that he was really into. I figured I’ll take a page out of his book and do the same. Here’s a few things I’m completely immersed in at the moment…

Playing Kung Fu Panda on the Wii with Luke. We totally beat it last night.
I’ve been listening to Jason Eady’s album non-stop since it was released on Tues. One of my favorite tracks is Maybe I’ll Stay A While:
Watching Design Star (or whatever reality show Christy is in to). I love it because she loves it.
Learning more and more about video cameras, lens and other gear.
Figuring out what it means to be always praying
Meeting new people, seeing new places in our city and thinking about how I can help it grow
Getting into the “school routine” and finding out there is more to do than I thought humanly possible
Planning for our annual Steamboat Spring, CO vacation of snow, music and friends

What are 5 things that you have been really into lately? By answering in the comments, you’ll be eligible to win a copy of Jason Eady’s album or if you already have it/want a different one I’ll get you what you want! I’ll choose someone randomly tomorrow.