A TRAILBLAZING BAND RETURNS;
THEY INTRODUCED PUNK TO COUNTRY

By JIM McGUINNESS, Staff Writer
The Record
October 18, 1996; FRIDAY; ALL EDITIONS

Copyright 1996 Bergen Record Corp.

JASON & THE SCORCHERS: With Drivin N Cryin and Health and Happiness Show. 9 tonight. Tramps, 51 W. 21st St., Manhattan. $ 12. (212) 727-7788.

"Oh, what a rush!" From Jason Ringenberg's opening exaltation on their new
"Clear Impetuous Morning" album, Jason & the Scorchers have returned to stake a
claim to the alternative-country throne.

Then again, the throne has perhaps always belonged to the Nashville-based foursome, who shook up the rock-and-roll underground in 1981 with their mix of punk-rock vigor and country twang. Nineties groups such as Son Volt, Wilco, the Bottle Rockets, and the now-defunct Jayhawks borrowed mightily from the Scorchers en route to creating the current alternative-country landscape.

Jason & the Scorchers, Ringenberg, guitarist Warner Hodges, bassist Jeff Johnson, and drummer Perry Baggs, thus find themselves in the rather awkward position of following those who followed them. "We've spent 15 years waiting for the world to catch up with us," said Hodges.

"It's weird," added Ringenberg. "What we were doing in 1981 is what everyone is doing now." Hodges and Ringenberg are holding court in the midtown Manhattan
offices of Mammoth Records, the independent label that helped them revive their recording career with last year's"A Blazing Grace." (The original group had reunited in 1993 after imploding in the late Eighties.)

If their comeback album rang of reunion, "Clear Impetuous Morning" leaves little doubt that Jason & the Scorchers have recaptured the swagger that made earlier collections such as"Fervor"and"Lost and Found" landmark mergers of rock, country, and punk. "We're past that reunion stuff," said Jason Ringenberg. We're just back."

Indeed, the Scorchers have hardly missed a beat since their heyday,
when their disparate influences were delighting club audiences and
confusing radio programmers. As always, Ringenberg and Hodges play off
their seemingly unmixable backgrounds. The sandy-haired Ringenberg, who
apparently hasn't gained an ounce in 15 years, still looks like the
rightful son of Hank Williams. His white cowboy hat is in sharp contrast
to Hodges more scraggly rocker look.

A little bit country, a little bit rock-and-roll. Just don't mistake Jason & the Scorchers for Donny and Marie. And don't compare them to more sedate country-rock acts like the Eagles and Poco. "What always set us apart was our punk-rock attack," said Ringenberg. "It's something we had from the start."

That start came 15 years ago when Ringenberg, the son of an Illinois pig farmer, arrived in Nashville looking to start a band whose sound would embody the unique vision in his head. Bob Dylan, George Jones, and Williams would be influences. So would the Sex Pistols, Led Zeppelin, and Jerry Lee Lewis. Willing accomplices were found in Hodges, Johnson, and Baggs.

Together, they spit in the face of the Nashville music establishment with a legendary series of live shows that rocked up country songs and countried down rockers. A pair of EP's,"Reckless Country Soul" and "Fervor", that drew solid college radio support helped the group land a major-label deal with EMI.

But Jason & the Scorchers would have trouble getting their sound out to mainstream America. Their punk sensibility made country radio an impossibility, while rock radio refused to embrace a band whose lead singer wore a cowboy hat. (The group had even been so bold as to call itself Jason & the Nashville Scorchers for the first three years of its existence.) Apparently at a musical dead end, the original lineup splintered in the late Eighties.

Which brings us to 1996, and a time when Jason & the Scorchers is viewed as a prototype for countless alternative-country bands. Hodges and Ringenberg are aware of the adulation, even if they are somewhat out of touch with the new breed. "I've never heard Son Volt," said Hodges. "I just don't listen to much new stuff. I listen to talk radio." Adds Ringenberg: "I'd rather listen to the classics. Even with the new stuff, I'd rather listen to the new George Jones album."

Which brings us to "Clear Impetuous Morning," an album that manages to recapture the punk abandon of the group's earlier days. At the same time, it shows a band that is perhaps reaching for adulthood. Nine of the 14 tracks feature acoustic guitars, while tracks such as "Everything Has a Cost" (on which Ringenberg duets with Emmylou Harris) and "Jeremy's Glory" are out-and-out ballads.

That's not to say the album is laid back. Tracks such as the radio-ready "Cappuccino Rosie" and the power-poppish "Uncertain Girl" rank with the group's best, while the supercharged country-rockers "Tomorrow's Come Today" and "Kick Me Down" brim with an unbridled passion.

Which may explain Ringenberg's "Oh what a rush!" wail on "Self-Sabotage," the fiery track that kicks off the album. "Making a record hadn't felt like that since Lost and Found," said Ringenberg. "The studio was alive. It felt good to be in a band again."

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