Jason & the Nashville Scorchers

Reckless Country Soul
Mammoth

Bone Magazine
April 1996

Copyright 1996 - 2004 Bone Magazine

Jason and the Scorchers came blazing out of the South in the early ‘80s with a searing, razor-sharp, guitar-based rock that drew equally upon punk and Hank Williams, Sr. Led by Jason Ringenberg, the son of an Illinois hog farmer whose love of country and early rock n’ roll brought him to Nashville in search of stardom, the Scorchers soon established themselves as one of the country’s premier live acts, mixing elements of country and rock into an utterly unique, no-holds-barred sonic stew.
White noise mongering guitarist Warner Hodges tossed off swirling riffs and soulful lines, and drummer Perry Baggs provided the most entertaining display of passion and percussion since Keith Moon, while Jason, at the forefront of the maelstrom, somehow brought everything into focus with feckless originals and hell-bent-for-leather reinterpretations of classic country numbers.
They should have been superstars, but their major label releases never caught on with the masses, and they disbanded in ‘89, only to come roaring back last year with the superb A Blazing Grace on Mammoth.
Now, Mammoth has revived the Scorchers’ first recording, 1982’s Reckless Country Soul. This long-out-of-print EP, recorded on a four-track recorder during a chaotic three-hour session, finds the Scorchers tearing through two originals - “Shot Down Again” and “Broken Whiskey Glass” (later reworked for the Lost & Found album) - and delivering Scorcherized covers of Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome (I Could Cry)” and Jimmie Rodgers’ “Last Blue Yodel.” This is great, stirring stuff, with the soulful cry of country harnessed to a reckless, breakneck new sound that has yet to be equaled.
The four cuts which made up the original EP are augmented by the band’s Three Stooges version of Willie Nelson’s “Hello Walls” (cut at the same session) and five previously unreleased cuts from their pivotal pre-Fervor Sun Studio sessions. The markedly different versions of “Help! There’s a Fire” and “Pray For Me Mama (I’m a Gypsy Now)” will prove revelatory to those familiar with their Fervor versions, while the inclusion of their high-speed version of Carl Perkins’ “Gone Gone Gone” and the medley of “I’d Rather Die Young/Candy Kisses” will bring a smile to anyone who recalls the Scorchers’ early live shows.
A surprising and vital reissue, Reckless Country Soul is a must for fans of wild & woolly rock & roll.

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