JASON & THE SCORCHERS

“Thunder and Fire” (A&M)

Robert Oermann; Nashville Tennessean
August 4, 1989, Friday

Copyright 1989-2004 Gannett Company Inc.

Your (usually) trusty consumer guide to new records has been sampling all the genres, as usual. This edition surveys releases from jazz, country, black music and rock artists.

JASON & THE SCORCHERS “Thunder and Fire” (A&M) Nashville’s most acclaimed alternative rock band returns to prove that all those critical hosannas were not only richly deserved, but perhaps somewhat premature. For “Thunder and Fire” is twice as good as the band’s two previous efforts. The band has lost none of the manic, itchy-pants excitement it has always communicated. And it has gained finesse, power, emotional effect and confidence.
“When the Angels Cry,” cowritten by lead singer Jason Ringenberg and Don Schlitz, not only bursts with energy, it’s nothing less than a state-of-the-planet portrait. Collaborating with Steve Earle, Jason has come up with a scary “movie” called “A Bible and a Gun’’ about a psycho desperado. Jason and Paul Kennerley are behind the youthful, careening “Away From You.” “Find You,” cowritten with Tim Krekel, is a pounding, chiming thing that will ring in your head for days.
Wherever you listen on this collection, you’ll be struck by the splendid playing of this band as well as by its poetic sensibilities – “Six Feet Underground” and “Lights Out” are particularly impressive demonstrations of how you can rock and think at the same time. And for a look at how timeless the feelings of youth are, check out the band’s interpretation of Phil Ochs’ “My Kingdom for a Car.”

© 1989-2004 — Gannett Company Inc.— All Rights Reserved