Reckless Country Soul Review
Jason and the Nashville Scorchers

Marty Howell; Lincoln Review of Music, Lincoln, Nebraska
1982

Copyright 1982-2004 Lincoln Review of Music

“Out of the cradle endlessly rocking,” the slogan of the Scorchers’ Nashville label, Praxis, would make an apt epigram for the long-awaited debut pressing.
From the home of country music and a stone’s throw from the birthplace of rock and rockabilly, Memphis, come Jason and crew with a multitude of influences that culminate in what has been called country rock, country soul, country satire, rockabilly and rockabilly punk. Side one of the EP consists of two originals by the Scorchers, the flip a couple of revamped country classics.
“I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” sung with Jason’s trace Southern drawl, starts at its usual crawl, then reaches a halting midsong climax before, by the efforts of drummer Perry Baggs, exploding into rock redo. Only the songwriting genius of Hank Williams could survive the encumbent onslaught. You never know how good a song like this is in doubletime until someone - enter Jason - dares to tread on sacred country tradition.
The other cover, “These Women Make a Fool Out of Me” by Jimmy Rodgers, the famed “Singing Brakeman” and “granddaddy of country music,” is an all-out honky-tonker, a barroom special dominated by fast, hard-driving chords. A touch of falsetto shows that the Scorchers can respect a good artist in the original context, while disdaining the monopolized glamour world of contemporary C&W industry.
The Scorchers own “Shot Down Again” goes over again the age-worn theme of the
one-way perils of falling in love, and its lyrics show yet another angle of their musical perspective by a contrast with the moral majority.
Today I saw my baby
And Lord it made me high
But when I tried to kiss her
Jerry Falwell shot teargas m my eyes

“Broken Whiskey Glass” is the other Scorchers’ creation and, I believe, their
most notable arrangement. It’s a fever-pitched rocker, like the others on
the disc, alternating between slow and fast stanzas and clearly delineating its
contributing components - i.e., country and rock. The New York Rocker’s Drew
Wheeler claims, “‘Broken Whiskey Glass’ has true hit potential.’
The guitarwork by bassist Jeff Johnson and lead Warner Hodges-whose daddy
picked alongside Johnny Cash and Lefty Frizzell - is solid, but surprisingly, Hodges’ riffs are a bit lame when compared with the greater inspiration he has displayed onstage. Jason Ringenberg’s acoustic six-stringer adds down-home flavor, while his skilled harmonica represents a dying art.
A possible drawback is the lack of studio quality, as a friend’s livingroom
was used. However, this only applies if you’re unfamiliar with grass-roots sounds and have been weaned on the multi-take, perfectionist technology that pervades commercial pop. The EP is an expression of what’s reproduced, note for note verbatim, in live Scorchers’ performances - something many successful performers can’t possibly achieve.
No disrespect intended, but if you’d like a refreshing alternative to Charlie Burton and other Lincoln regulars, this wax will turn the trick. (Incidentally, for weeks C.B. owned the only copy of the record to be found in Lincoln.) Look for the Scorchers to return to the ‘Stick in the near future.

© 1982-2004 — Lincoln Review of Music — All Rights Reserved