JASON AND THE SCORCHERS PLAN TO LIGHT UP DANCIN'

By RICK de YAMPERT, Staff Writer
The Tennessean - May 1, 1997, Thursday CITY EDITION

Copyright 1997 The Tennessean

Has Nashville's most famous cow-punk band, Jason and the Scorchers, pulled a Cat Stevens? Remember Stevens, that '70s balladeer who became a Muslim and then denounced pop music, even his own pastoral melodies?

"Politically I'm not sure how I'll vote, and I'm not sure of some songs that I wrote," singer Jason Ringenberg yelps on I'm Sticking With You. The metal-meets-western-swing ditty is one of the tunes on the new Scorchers album, Clear Impetuous Morning. Not sure of some Scorchers songs, Jason? Have you...er, undergone some sort of conversion?

"That song is a very personal song," Ringenberg says with a hearty chuckle. "You know, some songs you write just because you're writing a song. But some songs you're really showing what you were thinking and feeling at the time. That did. There's a lot of important sentiment in that song."

But fear not, Scorchers fans. True, Ringenberg laughs again and says, "There's bunches of songs I'm probably not sure of if I ever had to get tough with myself." But rest assured the Scorchers are primed, even itching, to strut their punkabilly stuff at tonight's Dancin' in the District concert. The show is the first in this year's free Thursday night concert series at Riverfront Park.

"This is a very important show for us," Ringenberg says. "It's our first Nashville show with Kenny Ames, our new bass player. We'll have something to prove. We want to show that we're just as good as we've ever been."

And the band wants to expose the roaring, no-oil-in-the-crankcase glory of Clear Impetuous Morning. which boasts such songs as Self-Sabotage, an absolutely punkish workout, and Walking a Vanishing Line, a blast of alternative power-pop. "In retrospect, this is one of our strongest records," Ringenberg says. "We're an eight-album band now, so we've been around awhile. We knew we were on it when we were making it. The whole thing felt good."

Ringenberg is unfazed by performing before a crowd that won't necessarily be wall-to-wall Scorchers fans a crowd organizers say could swell to 10,000 or even 12,000 people. "We're up there to get a musical buzz happening," he says. "We always want to do well, of course, but mostly we're just up there rocking, and whatever happens happens."

Other bands performing today include the alternative rock band the Evinrudes, the surf-rock band Los Straitjackets (who perform wearing wrestling masks), and the western swing/rockabilly band Big Sandy and His Fly Rite Boys.

GETTING THERE

Dancin' in the District, featuring headliners Jason and the Scorchers, will be from 5 to 10 p.m. today at Riverfront Park on First Avenue and Broadway. Admission is free. Event held rain or shine. Concessions available.

© 1997-2004 — The Tennessean — All Rights Reserved