Twenty-five years ago, Jason Ringenberg
played the bars of downtown Springfield. A young college student in
Carbondale, straight off the family farm, he was trying to find his
place in the world of music. Decked out in his fringed jacket,
harmonica rack, and acoustic guitar, Ringenberg sang old country
songs and tunes by Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and other folk-rockers.
On July 4, 1981, he headed for Nashville to find a rock & roll
band whose members liked country music. He succeeded in his quest,
and so began the odyssey of Jason and the Scorchers. The group
played what was then called cowpunk, country thrash, “TNT
from Tennessee,” and other peculiar things until the
alternative-country label came into being several years later.
Jason and the Scorchers, known as one of the
best live bands in the genre, released a couple of good records on
EMI before, as guitarist Warner Hodges put it, “we
didn’t break up, we fell apart.” By the early
’90s, Ringenberg was trying to find a niche in Nashville
without the Scorchers. He flirted with the established traditional
country-music community, but his natural tendency to be a bit
different quickly quashed the budding affair. After a Scorchers
reunion tour in the mid-’90s, the group recorded a couple of well-received
albums, then let the whole thing go again, only occasionally reuniting
for a show.
Through it all, Ringenberg continued his solo
labors, forming his own record label, Courageous Chicken, to
produce and distribute his work. Popular in Europe since the
Scorchers days, he found steady gigs there and in stalwart pockets
of alt-country resistance in the States.
A few years ago, Ringenberg developed the
alter ego of Farmer Jason, a performer of children’s songs.
After producing the CD A Day at the
Farm with Farmer Jason, Ringenberg
found himself playing daytime shows for kiddies in libraries and
nighttime shows for adults in taverns. His most recent adult
release, Empire Builders, on Yep Roc Records, takes a swipe at U.S. foreign
policy. It’s not the usual source of inspiration for the
folk-punk pioneer, who is more likely to sing of lost love and
found whiskey than American imperialism. But that’s just what
makes him so wonderful and successful: He follows his heart, and we
watch and listen.
Jason Ringenberg plays the Underground City
Tavern, 700 E. Adams St., on Friday, June 24. Opening
the show at 9 p.m. are the Moaners, a duo from Nashville, Tenn.
This article appears in Jun 23-29, 2005.
