Three decades after they first blew a punk-rock tornado through the hayloft of country music, Jason the Scorchers are back. Frontman Jason Ringenberg tells TONY CLAYTON-LEAhow he's given up making music with chickens and singing tractors for another whirl on the rock'n'roll rollercoaster
JASON & the Scorchers are back with a bang. They’re alive and kicking, they’re ready to pour petrol on the porch, strike a match, and they’re willing to walk away without a backwards glance. For those whose record collections go back before the advent of Ye Olde Compact Disc, the Scorchers’ mixture of The Stooges and Hank Williams was truly a heady experience. A confluence of the old and the relatively new – yet with not a drop of revivalism or irony – the band blazed a trail across a parched prairie landscape, giving Nashville the finger, America the fist and the rest of the world a howdy-doody handshake.
Over the years, the band members have departed, done their separate things, and returned, but always it seemed as if its nominal leader – Jason Ringenberg – had other matters on his mind. Perhaps due in part to Ringenberg's moderately successful solo career (which, aside from his fine stripped-back country records, also includes his children's cornball character Farmer Jason, which is picking up television appearances left, right and centre on various US state TV channels), the sightings of the Scorchers were more like mirages than the real thing. But now, after finally dealing with matters such as timing and financing, he comes back to the Nudie suit fold a cheerful, contented man. Mind you, having unilaterally put the band into semi-retirement following 1998's live album, Midnight Roadsand Stages Seen, he had to be persuaded.
"Frankly," says Ringenberg from his farm in rural America, where he lives with his wife and young daughters, "I wanted no part of it and just hoped the band would go away without me having to be the one to put the bullet in it. But Warner Hodges, our guitar player, finally put together all the stuff to make a record – money, and things like that – and I thought I'd give it a whirl just to shut him up. I'm not being coy, this is actually the truth – I did it just to shut Warner up. I mean, it was easier to do a record with him than for he to have go on so much about it. So I decided to go along with it, thinking that we'd make a record, have fun, and then it would be over. But we made a dynamite record in Halcyon Days, even if I do say so myself. And how we did that still surprises me."
If anything, time was the main issue. “I thought it would take two years to write it – you see, I’m so busy doing my solo stuff that I didn’t think I’d have the time for it. But everyone knuckled down to it, gave it their all, and did it from start to end in about a month.
“Even now we’re making it work, time-wise. I mean, I really want to do this now; I’m whole-hog into the idea of going on stage with a great band. Man, I’m 51 years old, and to get up there and rock like this is something I’m not going to miss. I usually sing about guitar-pickin’ chickens and tractors that sing, so to be able to get up and rock with a great band is something I’m totally up for.”
So the age thing doesn’t matter? “I never thought about age so much when I was 20,” says Ringenberg, “but it’s certainly more common these days to do stuff like this if or when you’re over 50 – providing you actually can do it, of course. That said, when you walk on stage and you’re overweight, you’re tired and you’re lookin’ old, then people are going to put you down for it. But in my opinion this band is as competitive as any young rock band out there.”
Ringenberg has an interesting background. Raised on a hog farm in Sheffield, Illinois, one day – on July 4th 1981 – he drove to Nashville. His dream, he says, was to form a great American rock band, peopled by musicians who sounded like they had grit in their souls and grime in their fingernails.
“Punk rock wasn’t part of the culture of Sheffield, Illinois, I can tell you that. People were not listening to Ramones records there, but somehow me and a few other like-minded spirits understood what was going on with that music and really loved it. Also, I should say, the likes of Warner, Jeff Johnson and Perry Baggs, two of the band’s original members, were definitely punk rockers. Pure and simple, they were Nashville street punk guys, and they brought that sensibility to the band much more than I did.”
Were you viewed by the others as something of a country hick? “I think they did, but they liked that about me. I have always thought that Warner made a pact with the other guys not to allow me to make the music too hokey!”
Hokey or not, Jason the Scorchers attacked country music with so much energy that they poked pins through the eyes of the country music establishment. They started off as a relatively cultish act, but when they filtered out into broader waters, there’s little doubt that they not only altered the perception of what country music could do and could sound like, but also influenced the emerging alt.country music movement in the early 1990s.
“I think we get a little bit more credit than we sometimes may deserve for that kind of thing,” says Ringenberg, “but I do believe that in the narrow area of really hard, high-energy punk rock, rock’n’roll and country music we made a profound impact on people. Yes, there is a lot of great country music and rock’n’roll out there – there always has been and always will be. But that quite narrow spot, where the music styles converged the Ramones rhythm section with, say, Hank Williams – in that sense the band was and is still pretty unique.”
Kilkenny highs: RR must-sees
JOSH RITTER THE ROYAL CITY BAND
Ritter is one of the smartest songwriters around, and his latest album, So Runs the World Away, is a perfect example of his mixture of melody and perception. Where/when: Ormonde Hotel, 8pm, €30, Tonight, April 30th
CAITLIN ROSE
Rose is this decade’s Laura Cantrell; she’s a woman who references the past (Patsy Cline, Kitty Wells) as much as the here and now (her lyrics are pithy and potty-mouthed). Something of a class act. Where/when: Ryan’s, 6pm, €12, Tomorrow May 1st
THE DUKE AND THE KING
In a word: wow. In more than one word: this NYC soul/roots/pop ensemble effortlessly mix influences from the likes of Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye and Crosby, Stills, Nash Young. Outside event headliners, Jason the Scorchers, this lot could well be the hit of the festival. Where/when: Set Theatre, 8pm, €15, Tomorrow May 1st
DEX ROMWEBER DUO
Former punks always seem properly geared up to the wily ways of applying grit to roots, and so here we have guitarist/ vocalist Dex and drummer Sara getting it on with the combined spirits of country music outlaw, Merle Haggard, and punk rock band, X. Where/when: Cleeres, 9pm, €15, Tomorrow May 1st
JOE PUG
Sometimes it’s the simple approach that works the best; Joe Pug is a guy with a guitar and more than several very decent songs. He’s a troubadour, a trouper and a troubled man with a helluva backstory. Well worth investigating. Where/ when: Ryan’s, 6pm, €12, Sunday May 2nd.
Jason & the Scorchers perform at Kilkenny Rhythm Roots festival this Sunday, May 2nd. Halcyon Days is out now. jasonandthescorchers.com, kilkennyroots.com
