'Yellowstone': Country Singer Ryan Bingham Joins Cast as New Ranch Hand

Yellowstone welcomed a new face to its cast on Wednesday night's episode: country singer Ryan Bingham.

Bingham is an acclaimed Americana artist with five studio albums under his belt, including 2007's Mescalito and 2015's Fear and Saturday Night. He recently branched into acting, with country- and western-themed films Crazy Heart, Hostiles and Your Right Mind.

The singer's character fills a void left at the Yellowstone Ranch when the team is forced to fire a ranch hand after he assaults a member of the ranch's close-knit "branded" members. They take care of that aggressive worker with violent measures, leaving an opening on the staff.

John Dutton tells his right-hand-man Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) to find a new man to fill the void, but he wants this one to be immediately branded and forced to live up to the group's expectations. He tells Rip to find a man fresh out of prison, and that is where we meet Bingham's character, Walker.

Rip waits outside the jail and calls out to Walker. He then quizzes the stranger on his cowboy credentials. Walker reveals he worked at several ranches down in Texas before becoming locked up while working at an operation up in Montana.

"I'm cowboy enough," Walker says.

Rip then lets him know they could you a man like him at Yellowstone Ranch, but he needs to know what exactly got him locked up. Walker confesses that it was a manslaughter charge brought on by an accidental death during a bar fight.

"Manslaughter. Really ain't much to know," Walker said. "Dude got mouthy at a bar and swung on me. I swung back and hit him right between the eyes. F—er just went down and died. Can't explain it."

Rip then makes him promise that his "swinging" days are over, and then Walker hopes in the truck and heads on the Yellowstone Ranch.

Walker soon becomes acclimated to the ranch, serenades the other ranch hands (with Bingham's 2010 song "All Choked Up Again") and joins the branded brotherhood.

There's no word yet on Walker's importance to Yellowstone's plot going forward, but episode 5 spends a considerable amount of time on him, much like the previously branded ranch hand, Jimmy Hurdstrom (Jefferson White).

Yellowstone airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on Paramount Network.

Photo Credit: Paramount Network