The Scorchers’ unique blend of country twang, roots-rock, and punk fury didn’t play well on MTV in the mid-‘80s and it didn’t sell many records, but it sure garnered a fair bit of critical acclaim. When the going got tough, though – as it often did during the Reagan ‘80s – there was nobody better at getting on stage and blowing away thoughts of your overdue car payment or impending rent than Jason & the Nashville Scorchers. Any night, in any venue, the Scorchers gave such cult-fave heavyweights as the Replacements a run for their money as the best damn rock ‘n’ roll band in the land.
Jason & the Scorchers’ Still Standing
Although they were, perhaps, the most dynamic and consistent live band
playing the rock ‘n’ roll circuit during the mid-to-late 1980s, the Scorchers’
label wasn’t pleased with the exposure and acclaim afforded the band’s debut,
Lost & Found. Rather than wait for the band’s live performances to
create word-of-mouth excitement (and sell records), the label recruited hard
rock producer Tom Werman (Motley Crue) to helm the all-important second album.
The resulting production and the accompanying image “make-over” provided the
band with a glossy sound and glam appearance that dismayed long-time fans.
Even Werman’s slick, metal-tinged production couldn’t hide the Scorchers’
cowtown roots, however. If Still Standing polished a few of the band’s
rough edges, it by turns emphasized Jason’s manic vocals, Warner Hodges’
raging fretwork, and the big beat rhythms of bassist Jeff Johnson and drummer
Perry Baggs.
After all these years, Still Standing sounds
like a revelation. Jason’s songwriting skills had matured nicely between the
early Fervor EP and this second full-length LP, his masterful wordplay
weaving wonderful story songs fraught with emotion and power. Rough-and-ready
rockers like “Golden Ball & Chain”, “Shotgun Blues”, and a wild Scorchers
reading of the Stones’ “19th Nervous Breakdown” emphasize the band’s punk
mindset, Hodges whirling like a dervish, his axework underlining Jason’s
growing confidence in his vocal abilities. What made the band’s approach work
as well as it did is that the members never thought of themselves as punk
rockers, not in the classic British sense of the word, at least. They were
country punks, possessing all of the piss and vinegar of their big city
counterparts; Jason, Warner, Jeff and Perry making their bones playing to
hostile crowds in crappy honky-tonks and dangerous roadhouses.
Country Roots & Punk Attitude
To this punk attitude, the Scorchers added a country traditionalism that
was as firmly rooted in Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, and George Jones as any
alt-country band today can claim. Jason was the son of a midwestern farmer;
the remaining Scorchers were brought up in the Nashville area, Hodges playing
with his parent’s gospel band. When punk hit Nashville in the late 1970s,
though, it hit hard, offering a stark alternative to the “countrypolitan”
sound of “Music Row” in the 1960s and early ‘70s. The Ramones’ first
appearance in the Music City, at the legendary Exit/Inn in 1979, would change
the rules forever. Only a hundred or so people attended this mythical show,
but all of them started bands, it would seem. Early ‘80s Nashville shows by
folks like Black Flag, the Replacements, and X would spur further creativity
and evolution of the growing local music scene.
The Scorchers
absorbed these changing musical currents, mostly through the contributions of
Johnson and Baggs, but would remain truer to their country roots than many of
their west coast-based “cowpunk” counterparts. Still Standing manages
to retain a fair share of the twang, especially on slower songs like “Good
Things Come To Those Who Wait” and “Take Me To Your Promised Land”. These were
not so much “power ballads,” like those delivered by hair metal bands, but
rather country torch songs, tortured with emotion, Jason’s image-filled lyrics
and potent vocal phrasing backed by a classic honky-tonk shuffle. On stage,
these slower-paced songs would provide a counterpoint to the band's balls-out
rockers, allowing the audience time to catch its breath. Tunes like “My Heart
Still Stands With You” have aged well with time and sound as fresh today as
fifteen years ago.
To the remastered reissue of
Still Standing, the label has added three bonus songs. The gem
“Greetings From Nashville”, penned by former Nashville resident Tim Krekel, is
a longtime Scorchers favorite (and perhaps the only lyrical snapshot of the
Southern underground of the 1980s). The previously unreleased “Route 66”, a
live staple of the band, is provided a typical raucous treatment while “The
Last Ride”, an unreleased instrumental, proves for once and for all that
Warner Hodges was one of the greatest six-string madmen of the 1980s.
The Reverend’s Bottom Line
Still Standing should have broken the Scorchers through to the
mainstream, with three or four potentially big singles deserving more than the
nonexistent airplay they received. Johnson would subsequently leave the band
to join Nashville Goth-rockers Guilt on their sojourn to L.A. and the
Scorchers would slightly alter their sound again with their third album,
Thunder & Fire.
The band broke-up at the end of the
‘80s and got back together in 1995 for another run at the brass ring. Core
members Jason Ringenberg and Warner Hodges still perform as the Scorchers
today and through all of the band’s trials and tribulations, they have
retained an enormously loyal fan base throughout the past twenty years. If the
Scorchers are, indeed, the ultimate cult band, Still Standing is
quintessential Jason & the Scorchers. Get it and find out what all the
fuss is about… (EMI America, reissued September 5th, 2002)
Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™, 2002
Find the CD on Discogs: Jason & the Scorchers’ Still Standing
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