Final SXSW Free Concert: Ryan Bingham

Rodeo veteran, inveterate rocker & raconteur, and 2010 Academy Award winner for the theme to Crazy Heart, “The Weary Kind,” Ryan Bingham slots in on Fri., March 20, for the third and final free SXSW concert on Auditorium Shores this month. Joining him are local outlaw Carson McHone, former Black Crow Jackie Greene, and Memphis scion Luther Dickinson.

Announced last week, the three-headed hydra of Spoon, Charles Bradley, and Superchunk’s Mac McCaughan took the first day, Thu., March 19. Two weeks before that, the Music Festival released details of an appropriately big and flashy Latin showcase on the waterfront concert space: Intocable, Bomba Esterero, and Compass for the full final day of the conference – Sat., March 21. Bingham completes the triptych.

Having hit the album promotion trail after the Jan. 20 release of his fifth LP, Fear & Saturday Night, Bingham shook the Austin Music Hall only last week, having previewed the disc last fall at an overrun club gig at Holy Mountain. Boasting longtime ties to Austin, he can get away with too-small shows here, yet long ago outgrew such stages for the sort of platform SXSW offers. Bingham’s a true man of the people and Texans alike.

McHone, meanwhile, already an integral element to the Austin Music Awards on Wed., March 18 – the Viva La Diva segment wherein seven local ladies cover local and Lone Star standards – makes perfect sense as opener at 5pm. Onetime axe grinder for the Black Crows, Jackie Greene brings Americana to the middle slot, 6pm. North Mississippi All-Star and son of legendary Memphis producer and rock & roller Jim Dickinson, Luther Dickinson precedes Bingham at 7pm.

Rodeo begins at 8.

Per usual, the show’s free with a Guest Pass wristband, available in advance or onsite at the event. SXSW Music badges, Platinum badges, and Music wristbands need no additional accreditation to gain entry. Get there early, too, because Bingham will pack ’em in like one of Willie Nelson’s Fourth of July picnics.