JASON RINGENBERG:
A POCKETFUL OF SOUL
(COURAGEOUS CHICKEN)
By LEN RIGHI,
The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.),
November 4, 2000, Saturday
Copyright 2000 - 2004 - The Morning Call, Inc.
As leader
of Jason and the Scorchers, Jason Ringenberg was country-punk’s
favorite hellion for most of the 1980s. His new recording, A Pocketful
Of Soul, comes after a decade during which the Scorchers’ broke
up, Ringenberg cut an ill-fated solo effort and the Scorchers reunited
for three discs (the band is now on extended hiatus.)
A Pocketful Of Soul finds Ringenberg much more subdued, but still feisty.
While he doesn’t entirely eschew electric instrumentation, Ringenberg
swaddles the disc’s 12 songs in acoustic (and nearly percussion-free)
countrified folk settings, at times calling to mind two other rootsy
bands from the ‘80s, Rank and File and The Rainmakers.
The Scorchers always had a way with cover tunes — their sizzling
remake of Dylan’s Absolutely Sweet Marie, for instance — and
on Pocketful Ringenberg does right by Whispering Pines and Guadacanal
Diary’s Trail of Tears. As for the originals, Oh Lonesome Prairie
is a heartfelt, straightforward paean to his ancestral Illinois hog
farm. The martial-rhythmed morality tale Under Your Command offers an
amusing twist as Ringenberg rallies to stare down the devil.
And the loping title track is an alluring love letter to his wife with
an astonishing amount of hope and generosity of spirit. More’s
the pity, then, that the second half of this disc, while well played,
doesn’t quite measure up to the first. Still, there are enough
pockets of pleasure to make Soul worth savoring.
Jason Ringenberg, Skip Denenberg, 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Tin Angel,
20 S. Second St., Philadelphia, 215-928-0978.
CAPTION: Jason Ringenberg ... enough pockets of pleasure.
© 2000 -2004 — The Morning Call, Inc. — All Rights Reserved
