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HOT
STREAK: By Melanie Credle The Herald-Sun Copyright 1997 - The Durham Herald Co.
"I left home on the rural route and told my dad I was stepping out," Ringenberg said with a laugh during a recent telephone interview from his Nashville home. "I wanted to go to a rootsy place. I honestly thought about moving to London. Wouldn't that have been a shock for a kid from the farm? Nashville had a pull. It was an instance where you had to go with your first instinct. You had to go with your gut." Jason and The Scorchers headline a show tonight at the Cat's Cradle with opening band, The Backsliders. After a heralded 1995 reunion album, "A Blazing Grace," that included the original lineup of Jason and The Scorchers, the band wasted no time in capitalizing on that renewed creative energy and released "Clear Impetuous Morning" late last year. USA Today called "Clear Impetuous Morning" the band's "finest work ever." "We actually released three records in the last two years. That's almost as much as we released in the last decade," Ringenberg said. "We wanted to keep the momentum going." The album that came between "A Blazing Grace" and the current "Clear Impetuous Morning," was a re-release of the band's first recording, "Reckless Country Soul" which introduced audiences to the band's then unique blend of punk rock and country music. When the band - which includes guitarist Warner Hodges, drummer Perry Baggs and bassist Jeff Johnson - came together to follow up "A Blazing Grace," they had a plan. "We knew we had to put a little more into it. We had all these songs sitting around and there was so much good feeling," he said. "On this new record we really had to show people we were making real creative strides going into the future." Ringenberg and Baggs are the principle songwriters for the band, but all four receive credit for three of the songs on the new album. Ringenberg also found a new songwriting partner in Tommy Womack. Those two wrote, "Self-Sabotage," "Cappuccino Rosie" and "Going Nowhere." "Tommy wrote this book, 'Cheese Chronicles.' Anyone who has anything to do with rock 'n' roll should read it. It's the true story of a rock 'n' roll band that never existed," Ringenberg said. "I read the book and I was just flabbergasted. Tommy would come to shows and I considered him a dweeby pest. I got a completely different take on the guy." "Tommy's just the kind of guy who will spit out ideas. He's a man of words and a lot of them. I felt he was a creative kind of guy. To write songs you don't have to be a musician. I know how to write melody. There were a few nights we would sit around and play Bob Dylan songs and look up R.E.M. songs on the Internet." Another interesting coincidence on the new album is first, the appearance of guest vocalist Emmylou Harris on the ballad, "Everything Has A Cost." The song was written as a duet and Ringenberg had Harris' voice in mind. "Emmy and I had been friends or acquaintances -- it would be presumptuous of me to say we're friends. I knew her to sit down and talk to her," Ringenberg said. "We wanted her and kept pestering her. She was a complete angel. I think she is an angel on earth." The band also covers a Gram Parsons/Roger McGuinn tune, "Drugstore Truck Drivin' Man." Harris sang with the late Parsons and was heavily influenced by him. "We'd been playing that song on 'A Blazing Grace' tour and it felt real good. It's a country rock kind of thing. To pick a Gram Parsons song is a kind of statement," Ringenberg noted. "I think it's difficult to take Gram a step farther and I think we accomplished it. We had so many original songs, but we couldn't deny this one." "This was a good record in the respect that every song had its champion. Even if I didn't write it, someone else would champion it or even if I did write it. Like with the song I wrote 'Uncertain Girl,' Jeff really understood what he could do with it." And with the Civil War-themed song, "Jeremy's Glory," Ringenberg proudly declares that, yes, he is a "Civil War geek." The interest doesn't have anything to do with someone in Ringenberg's family having fought in the war because his family consisted of German and Belgian immigrants who didn't come to the United States until the turn of the century. "The Civil War fascinates me. I love all American history. Once I came South in 1981, it was just a wonderful thing to see these markers in Nashville noting some battle," he said. "But 'Jeremy's Glory' was totally fictional. It's really not a positive song. It's a song about a guy who goes for glory and doesn't get on the playing field." Also, on "Clear Impetuous Morning," the producing reins were in the hands of Hodges and Johnson for the first time. "I think it was time and they felt like they had the stuff and they're experienced music guys. They felt like they wanted a shot," Ringenberg said. Once the band had a finished product, they incorporated their new music into their always energetic, sometimes thrilling, bordering on awesome and rarely forgotten live shows. That's where they hear the only critique that matters. "I think the fans are basically saying it's a good Scorchers record. People are saying it's our best since 1985. I don't think the Scorchers are creating a radical departure, but this album kicks us out of a rut," Ringenberg said. Unfortunately, with two new albums out in the last two years and the band's reissue, somebody's favorite Jason and The Scorchers song doesn't get played. "That's a real problem. There's always disagreement on that. Our shows are so physical that we can't do three hours. You have to cut stuff," he said. Still, that fact can't take away from the overall enjoyment of a live Jason and The Scorchers show. First, start with Ringenberg. Away from the stage, Ringenberg is quiet and unassuming. But when those cowboy boots step up to the microphone, watch out. "Sometimes I can be so tired and depressed about the road and you just walk on that stage and something happens. I don't have to do any preparing for it," he said. "Most people find it to be an endearing quality. I am a legitimately nice guy and I care about my fans and I'm not this rock 'n' roll monster." Then there's Hodges whose guitar plays some sweet music when it stays in his hands. Sometimes Hodges' licks are so hot, he spins his guitar around his neck or tosses it in the air to cool things down. "Warner used to be big for jumping off the drum riser. One time we were on a 10-foot stage with a 3-foot riser. He just got rockin'. This was in 1986," Ringenberg recalled. "And he just jumped up in the air and radically miscalculated and soared into the audience. I was terrified he had hurt himself. When I saw he was OK, I just fell on the ground laughing." To the band's credit, they have built a 15-year reputation on pretty much word of mouth about their music and their live shows because "no radio station anywhere in the world plays The Scorchers because we don't fit the format." They almost lost it all when due to alcohol and drug problems the band broke up in 1989. Johnson instigated the reunion in 1993. Ringenberg admits he was skeptical. "It took a little while to accept. I was still in the middle of another record contract. I was also in the middle of a divorce at the time. I was more concerned about attitude when we got back together," he said. "It was a growing thing and grew over a long period of time. I don't think we jelled as a band until 'Clear Impetuous Morning.'" Ringenberg realizes he is lucky for the band to have survived without any serious commercial success. He's come a long way from the farm, but if he hadn't had his music that's where he might have stayed. "I think I would have stayed on the farm and resented life in time and married some cute little girl and raised kids and cows," he said. "Ultimately
I would have been unhappy. I may go back to that someday, but I know
I have seen the world and rocked houses all over the world. I have
accomplished Jason and
the Scorchers with the Backsliders play tonight at the Cat's Cradle,
300 E. Main St., Carrboro. $ 9. 967-9053. © 1997-2004 — The Durham Herald Co. — All Rights Reserved |
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