Jason and the Scorchers return with Thunder and Fire

DAVID SINCLAIR; The Times (London)
July 29 1989, Saturday

Copyright 1989-2004 Times Newspapers Limited

Nashville rockers Jason and the Scorchers return with Thunder and Fire, a punchy concoction of cowpoke metal that is an improvement on their dire offering of 1986, Still Standing, but is still not a patch on their glorious 1985 debut, Lost and Found.
The problem with these lads is a lack of sustained imagination in the songwriting department, and this time they have wisely sought outside help. The results of a collaboration with Steve Earle on the twanging ‘Bible and a Gun’ are impressive, while window-rattling guitars fuel a version of Phil Ochs’s ‘My Kingdom for a Car’ which blasts along with a defiant roar. There is a pleasing, untypically quiet, country feel to both ‘Close up the Road’ and ‘No Turning Back’ (co-written by Don Schlitz). They remain a better proposition on stage, and I recommend catching them in a bar when they return to Britain in the autumn.

© 1989-2004 — Times Newspapers Limited— All Rights Reserved