STEPHENVILLE, Texas - It's a long way from a tiny, boarded up Stephenville cowboy bar to the Academy Awards, but not that far.
The Oscar for best original song went to T-Bone Burnett and Ryan Bingham for "The Weary Kind (Theme From Crazy Heart)." Burnett is a music legend who lived in Erath County, 70 miles southwest of Fort Worth.
To Ryan Bingham, Oscar night must have seemed like a lifetime away from nights on little corner stages in Stephenville. Seems like only yesterday to Courtney Patton, who shared the stages with Bingham.
"It was so exciting," Patton said about seeing Bingham accept the Oscar. "I knew him, sat on stage with him and sang harmony on his songs."
It was only eight years ago Bingham rode bulls for the Tarleton State Rodeo team and played open mic nights at the Agave Bar And Grill in Stephenville.
"As young as we were, 18-19 years old, his songs were very grown up," Patton said. "They came from a pain he had growing up."
Bingham came from a broken home and pretty much raised himself from his teens. On Wednesday nights, he would drive to his first regular gig at a tiny bar called the Water Hole. Now closed, it was next to a field on the outskirts of Stephenville. Some of those nightly sessions were recorded on a CD, which Patton still owns.
It's enough of a Hollywood ending to inspire any struggling singer-songwriter to keep at it, especially in Stephenville.
E-mail: jdouglas@wfaa.com
