James R. Benkard
Glorified fan, aka. webstaff@jasonandthescorchers.com

Born 1968. Scorpio. 5-8, 130 lbs. Marital status: single.

Favorite food: tempeh bacon.

Heroes: Noam Chomsky, Gary Sinise, Jason Ringenberg, Warner Hodges, Howard Zinn, John Sayles, Charlie Sexton, Leonard Nimoy, Bill James, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Ken Follett, Samantha Mathis, Jennifer Connelly, Maria McKee, Shawn Colvin, Kelly Willis, Amy Goodman, Alice Koller.

Dislikes: War, intolerance, the mass media in America, the destruction of nature, fast drivers, rudeness, too much techno-music on the radio, corporate power in general.

Hobbies: Leftist/activist politics, music collecting, film studies, video games, Star Trek, distance running, this website.
I live in Lawrence, Kansas with two cats, Ebony and Avery.
With an affectionate nod to the film "High Fidelity", here are a few top five lists.

Top five favorite bands:
1. Jason and the Scorchers
2. Maria McKee
3. The Who
4. Midnight Oil
5. Charlie Sexton

Top five favorite albums:
1. "Clear Impetuous Morning", Jason and the Scorchers
2. "Under the Wishing Tree", Charlie Sexton
3. "Crossroads", Tracy Chapman
4. "Maria McKee", Maria McKee
5. "Braver Newer World", Jimmie Dale Gilmore

Top five best shows I have seen:
1. Jason and the Scorchers, Satellite Lounge, Houston, Tx. October 1996
2. Midnight Oil, the Ritz, New York, NY April 18, 1993
3. The Ramones, the Ritz, New York, NY November 7, 1986
4. Shawn Colvin, Wolf Trap, Vienna, Va. August 4, 1997
5. Go-Go's, Shoreline Amphitheatre, San Francisco, Ca. July 31, 2000

Top five best Scorchers shows I have seen:
1. Satellite Lounge, Houston, Tx. October 1996
2. Cat's Cradle, Carrboro, NC. January 10, 1997
3. Exit/In, Nashville, Tn. November 8, 1997
4. Cabooze, Minneapolis, Mn. July 1997
5. Fletcher's, Baltimore, Md. July 1998

Top five favorite books:
1. "An Unknown Woman", Alice Koller
2. "The Pillars of the Earth", Ken Follett
3. "The Rolling Stone Rock N' Roll Encyclopedia", various writers
4. "Iraq Under Siege", various authors, South End Press
5. "Voice and the Actor", Cicely Berry

I have spent much of my life trying to make connections with people through the arts. When I was a kid, I discovered that the times when I felt most alive, and when I knew most clearly who I was, were when I was taking part in the world of the arts. When I was younger, these experiences were as a spectator. When I grew up a bit, it was as a participant.

I first started listening to Jason and the Scorchers in 1985. I was in high school, and was listening to the Who, Hendrix, J. Geils, the Stones, REM, U2, the Ramones. It was a time of burgeoning 'alternative' radio, and in the northeast, there were plenty of good college and semi-commercial stations.

I came from a very urban background - New York City. I didn't listen to much country at all when I was growing up. Nevertheless, there was a certain authenticity to the way the Scorchers, Lone Justice, and the Long Ryders spiced their albums with country as well as rock. My perception of country artists was limited to Kenny Rogers or Juice Newton. As a teenager, I had not discovered Johnny Cash or Willie Nelson, or at least the vast majority of their catalogues. Lefty Frizzell, Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris...I knew nothing about any of them until I was 25.

I saw the Scorchers in New York in 1987, during the "Still Standing" tour. They were great, but even then, in my mid-eighties alcohol-induced haze, I noticed the changes they were undergoing. The band had become more complex, and sometimes it is better to stick to a formula that was working.

I bought "Thunder and Fire" in 1989 and liked it, especially "My Kingdom For a Car." By this time, I was in the same boat with the thousands of Scorchers fans who were convinced that any day the band would break loose and become one of the biggest bands in the world. From 1985 to 1991, they were one of my favorite bands - not my favorite, since I didn't follow them closely enough. Still, I admired them greatly.

I suppose I knew that the band had broken up in 1991-1992, but I was going through personal turmoil that precluded me from being involved in the music world at all. I think the only album I really listened to in 1992-1993 was Midnight Oil's "Scream in Blue Live".

In 1993, when I was living in Washington, DC, I saw the band when they came through town and played at the 9:30 club. It was at the old 9:30, before they moved to a much bigger building on 9th and V NW. That night in the hot, dark club, the band proved to me that they were worth all the hopes and dreams we had pinned on them in the eighties.

The band and the show had a raw, fresh, energetic appeal. They debuted songs from "A Blazing Grace", which was still at least a year away from being released. Warner chugged Diet Cokes and Jason thanked Jeff Johnson for putting the band back together. I remember "Promised Land" and a couple of encores. I remember bouncing up and down, the way I used to do at Ramones shows, and feeling the power and the unlimited potential of rock and roll.

I went to the show with my terrific girlfriend. She stayed in the back of the club, since at the time the music wasn't her cup of tea. That same lovely lady would eventually join me in 1997-1998 to drive a couple of thousand miles to and from Nashville from DC. She didn't do that simply to be nice to me. She had become a fan of the band. The song "To Feel No Love" had opened the door to the Scorchers for her.

I heard no more from the Scorchers until I bought "A Blazing Grace" in 1995. Hey, I thought, the old guys are back together again. I listened to the album a couple of times and filed it away in my collection. "A Blazing Grace" didn't grab me the way the old material did, but one reason for that was because I still was uneducated as far as country music was concerned. It's also harder to be moved deeply by a record as you get older.

From 1994 onward, unconnected with the Scorchers being back together, I started buying old country artists' records and really listening to them. By now, I knew about Garth Brooks and Alison Krauss, I was wising up to bluegrass in general, and I had a dim awareness of some guy named Steve Earle. I was in acting school from 1994 through 1996, and it was pretty intensive training.

In September/October of 1996, I bought a copy of "Clear Impetuous Morning" at an HMV in Georgetown, DC. The album floored me from the opening bell. Many people are able to tell you where they were, and how they felt, at certain moments of their life. I can't rattle off many of those experiences for you, but I can tell you that as soon as I heard the opening notes of "Self-Sabotage", I knew deep down that something had changed in me.

Subconsciously, I think, I knew a few things. I knew this was the best album I had heard in many years, that I wanted to be a part of the life of this band, and that I would go to the wall for the guys who put this together.

As a result, in the next two years, I went to twenty or so shows, helped build the official website for the band, and made many friends through going to the shows and frequenting the Scorchers' mailing list, the "Reckless Country Soup." It was a fun and wonderful time, and I got to interview Jason and Warner three times. I never had a chance to say as much as "hi" to Jeff Johnson, though, before he exited into the friendly confines of Georgia home life in February 1997.

I remember very well going to Kenny Ames' first show with the band in Murfreesboro in March 1997. I liked Kenny from the very start, and sensed in my own limited frame of knowledge he would be a great fit for the Scorchers. The show that night was, in some respects, still the wildest one I have ever seen the band perform. Jason came out wearing no hat, no shirt, boots, and overalls. "Cry By Night Operator" that night was edgy and desperate. It was as if the band was saying, "Look, we don't know if this band will be alive next week, so why not let it all hang out now?"

Then there was the live taping of "Midnight Roads", which I was privileged enough to see, and the long five-month wait for the record to be mixed and released. During that wait, there was Jason's solo show in Nashville on January 28, 1998. For many reasons, this was one of the most special nights of my life. Then the band announced they were still alive on Conan O'Brien in late April, when they torched the stage with "White Lies" and surprised O'Brien, who himself plays guitar.

The band did a full US tour to support the live record in 1998, although the West Coast still was left out. Then they made a month-long swing through Europe in March of 1999, including a Dublin, Ireland show that was rumored to be legendary.

But you all probably are familiar with the "legendary" shows of this band if you have read this far. This band is a labor of love for all concerned. It has hard-wired country music with rock n' roll for twenty years, which is not the most commercial prospect in the world. But that's okay. The band members are aware of the odds that face the trailblazers of the world. As Warner said a couple of years ago, "I didn't get the money, but I got the longevity."

There is a lot more to this band, though, than just their "influential" past. Just playing alternative country music in 1982 and establishing a take-charge attitude toward life in the music business wouldn't have mattered much if the Scorchers' songs weren't great. And the songs are great. You can hear the classic ones over and over, and they never become stale or dated.

There is Warner Hodges, one of the most exciting showmen and greatest guitarists of his generation. The band is approachable and down-to-earth. They remain hilarious on the stage, and every old Scorchers fan has a favorite story involving a wisecrack or a bizarre road story the band experienced or related to the crowd. Notice the word "related". The Scorchers have a long history of allowing the audience to join in the experiences they are creating onstage or on a record.

The Scorchers ushered in the new millennium with another Exit/In show on New Year's Eve. I was there and had a great time. They played a festival date or two in Nashville in 2000. Unfortunately, by this time word had come down that Mammoth Records, the company that signed the Scorchers in 1995, had been closed down by the corporate behemoth that bought them - Disney.
Jason released a lovely acoustic record toward the end of 2000 - "A Pocketful of Soul." It was originally a group of songs he wrote and recorded for himself and his family. It is available through Courageous Chicken Records, Jason's record company that he founded for the release.

I have seen Jason a couple of times on his solo dates supporting the record. Scorchers fans show up in droves, and they are genuinely happy with the show, which to my mind speaks volumes about the success the Scorchers have achieved. Jason and the Scorchers, and Jason Ringenberg, have always stood for an opening of musical possibilities, an opening of the dynamics of meeting new people and change, an opening of the worlds of faith and determination.

Open minds and open hearts. To me, that is what Hendrix stood for, and that was what the sixties were all about. In a time when radio and record companies push for greater specialization within each sub-genre of music, the Scorchers have always been about breaking the rules and lowering the barriers that keep the forms of music separate and people apart.

So, whither the band goest in 2001 and beyond? Jason has said that the band might become the "Beach Boys of alternative country" in the coming years. He has made references to Jerry Lee Lewis in the past, which is encouraging for any fan to hear. Jerry Lee was just getting geared up after he turned 40.

Will they have a record contract if they decide to record? Will they tire of lugging their own equipment around? Will the "vibe" Jason speaks of still be right when they come together? Your guess is as good as mine. Whatever happens, I would like the world to appreciate what I think is a great rock and roll band. That is the purpose of this website.

In 2001 and beyond, if the Scorchers reconvene to tour or record, you can count on a diehard section of fans like myself being there. You can also count equally strongly that the world will eventually catch up, and perhaps catch on, to what Jason, Warner, Perry, Kenny, and Jeff have been doing for a long time.
As a coda, here's a small essay I wrote after seeing the band perform their New Year's Eve show in Nashville on December 31st, 1999.

To me, what makes Jason and the Scorchers so special is the dynamic they create when 'country' meets 'city' in their music. Through melding country music with rock, punk or hard rock, they open up a dialogue between hicks and city slickers.

Put aside for the moment the artistic merit of this fusion. Forget as well that the Scorchers are wildly exciting. Simply consider how much we need this particular connection between people in America today.

With the world becoming scarier and scarier each day, Americans need things that will bring us together rather than apart. Yet here in 2000, there are far more forces that divide us than those that unite us. Few divisions are as prominent or ominous as the deep distrust between farmers and city folk - which is justified from the farmers' perspective by historical fact. This goes back to the Civil War, and even further.

What the Scorchers do is to highlight the humanity in both classes of people. Whether it's the privileged in "Everything Has a Cost", or the salt of the earth in "200 Proof Lovin'", everyone wants to be successful and be loved. The Scorchers also show how those on both sides of the line can be like each other. Their Hank Williams always has an itch to tie one on Saturday night, while their wild-eyed punk has a soft spot for Mom.

We need to learn from and empathize with others if we are to survive as a culture. Tolerance and understanding can start right in front of you at a Scorchers show. Suppose you spy someone across the floor who happens to be a little different. Just follow the healing power of the music, then walk up and say hello.