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Roots
rocker explores his quiet side Copyright 2001 The Dallas Morning News
"It used to seem so important, but you learn it's not - it's just music," he says, recalling the days when his Nashville-based band, Jason & the Scorchers, would drive all night just to do an interview at some minuscule radio station. "But I didn't realize it until we put out Clear Impetuous Morning in '96. We put a lot of our soul into that record and really believed it would take us to the big time, and after it didn't do that - it finally crumbled, the whole idea of striving for the big hit," he says. "And for a couple years after that, it was a dark time for me." By the late '90s, the leader of the pre-alt-country "roots rock" movement had hung up his cowboy hat and stage clothes and settled on a day job in construction. But it wasn't long before he was itching to make music again. Last year, he recorded a stripped-down album of folk-minded tunes, A Pocketful of Soul, and released it on his own Courageous Chicken label. He soon found himself back on the road - this time as a solo acoustic performer. "It was just meant to be a little solo record, a fun little thing, but now I've been all over the world with it, and The Associated Press just listed it as one of the top country records of 2000," he says, calling from his parents' farm in Illinois, where he grew up. "I made this whole record for $2,000, and we spent a quarter-million dollars on Thunder and Fire [Jason & the Scorchers' 1989 album]. But this is a better record. I've never really explored this side of myself in public," he says. The tunes on A Pocketful of Soul range from ballads about his family to "The Last of the Neon Cowboys," a honky-tonk song about a veteran country singer who refuses to sell out. The Scorchers weren't always as enlightened. Today, Mr. Ringenberg admits the band sometimes did just about anything in the name of expanding its audience - like signing on as Survivor's opening act for an entire tour in 1987. "Of all the dumb things - what were we thinking?" he says, laughing at the memory. "It was awful with a capital 'A.' The audience hated us." The Scorchers still perform together from time to time, but Mr. Ringenberg has been touring as a one-man band, mixing tunes from A Pocketful of Soul with just about any Scorchers song fans request. "It's just me and the guitar, so I really didn't think people would get into the shows the way they have," he says. "They've flowered way past my expectations. I always thought of myself as a rock 'n' roll singer with roots in folk and country, but now I've been able to develop into this whole new person." DETAILS: Sunday at 9 p.m. at
Poor David's Pub, 1924 Greenville Ave. $ 10. 214-821-9891.
© 2000-2001 The Dallas Morning News — All Rights Reserved |
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