HEARTFELT COUNTRY SOUL

THE ORLANDO SENTINEL
By NICK CRISTIANO, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
September 8, 2000 Friday

Copyright 2000-2004 - Sentinel Communications Co.

Jason Ringenberg, A Pocketful of Soul (Courageous Chicken): Jason and the Scorchers, the alt-country progenitors, play with such hell-bent rock ‘n’ roll fury that it sometimes obscures the down-home profundity of front man Jason Ringenberg’s songs. That’s not the case with this aptly titled solo effort.
A Pocketful of Soul is a spare, virtually all-acoustic effort that focuses squarely on bedrock country themes: the pull of home and the old ways (“Oh Lonesome Prairie,” “Merry Christmas My Darling”) — as well as the threats to them (“The Price of Progress”) — plus family, fatalism and faith (the gospel-charged “Under Your Command”). The soloing Scorcher doesn’t break new ground here, but one of his lines about the honky-tonk hero of “Last of the Neon Cowboys” explains some of the appeal of Ringenberg himself: “When the music starts, he’ll give all his heart, and make you believe again.”

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