Nashville Rock Memorabilia: Jason & the Scorchers Photo Gallery

Jason & the Scorchers: Warner Hodges, Perry Baggs, Jason Ringenberg, Jeff Johnson

Jason & the Scorchers with manager and Praxis International founder Jack Emerson

Jason & the Scorchers make the pages of Creem magazine!

 Jason & the Nashville Scorchers' 1982 Reckless Country Soul EP, the first shot...

Jason & the Nashville Scorchers' 1983 Fervor EP, later reissued by EMI Records

Jason & Warner in 2010

Jason & the Scorchers make the cover of The Metro magazine circa 1985

Scorched Earth: A Jason & the Scorchers Scrapbook, a collection of the Reverend's writing on the band with photos, graphics & lay-out by Paul Needham

Vintage Review: Jason & the Scorchers’ Midnight Roads & Stages Seen (1988)

Nashville’s favorite sons knocked a local audience on their collective backsides last November with the two nights of performances that make up Midnight Roads & Stages Seen, the Scorchers’ first, and long overdue, live set. The band has long been a favorite in tape trader’s circles for years, with classic vintage shows from the eighties swapped on a regular basis among an international audience. With the release of this double-disc set, Scorchers’ fans across the globe finally have an authorized live set to whet their musical appetites.

Jason & the Scorchers’ Midnight Roads & Stages Seen

For most of their career, Jason & the Scorchers have delivered solid studio albums, but it’s been their live shows that have won them a hard-earned and well-deserved following among even the most hard-core rockers. Lead vocalist Jason Ringenberg’s country-inflected drawl, boundless energy and manic on-stage gyrations are matched only by guitarist supreme Warner Hodges’ razor-sharp riffs, instrumental acrobatics, and dizzying dervish pirouettes. Drummer Perry Baggs has always been a steady keeper of the beats while the latest addition to the line-up, bassist Kenny Ames, has meshed nicely with the founding members of the band. Over fifteen years of performing across the United States, Canada, Europe and even “down under” have made the Scorchers a powerful live band. The chemistry enjoyed by the guys is such that, on any given night, they’re the best rock ‘n’ roll outfit playing anywhere – a claim not many bands could make.

If you’ve seen the Scorchers play live anytime during the past couple of years – or even during the past 15 years – then you’re probably aware of what the band is capable of on-stage. If not, then Midnight Roads & Stages Seen is the album for you. Recorded at Nashville’s famous Exit/In, the 23 songs chosen from two nights of shows are a veritable catalog of the Scorchers’ “greatest hits.” Classic cuts like “White Lies,” “Absolutely Sweet Marie,” “If Money Talks” or “Broken Whisky Glass” are provided an appropriate rave-up treatment. Other more understated songs, like “Somewhere Within” (from the A Blazing Grace album) or Jason’s collaboration with Todd Snider, “This Town Isn’t Keeping You Down,” are performed live here for the first time. The energy level displayed here is astounding, with every cut carefully crafted with equal parts of loving workmanship and reckless abandon.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

If there was any justice in this world – which, as we all know, there’s not – Jason & the Scorchers would be superstars of the biggest kind. There’s seldom been a harder working group of guys in a band, nor an outfit that has managed to persevere through three record labels, bankruptcy, and a brief break-up to subsequently create some of the best music of their career, as have the Scorchers. The band’s influence on the current crop of alt-country hopefuls and young rockers is enormous. Midnight Roads & Stages Seen captures the band at the peak of their career, the Scorchers still making great rock ‘n’ roll almost two decades since the day they first played together. (Mammoth Records, released 1988)

Review originally published by Live! Music Review

Vintage Ads: Jet Black Factory's Duality EP

Ad for Jet Black Factory's second EP, Duality, circa 1988, from the Fireplace Whiskey Journal

Jet Black Factory

 

Vintage Review: Jason & the Scorchers' A Blazing Grace (1995)

A Blazing Grace marks the return to record of Nashville’s own Jason and the Scorchers after a six year hiatus. From the first opening chords of “Cry By Night Operator,” a classic cry-in-your-beer tale of love lost set with a modern spin, the listener will recognize this as vintage Scorchers. Showcasing a trademark sound that is created of equal parts country roots and metal-edged, guitar-driven rock, A Blazing Grace nonetheless shows the band’s growth during their lengthy time off, as well. Cuts like “The Shadow of Night” and “Hell’s Gates” are reflections of the hard-earned collective wisdom and maturity that is the new Scorchers, whereas “One More Day of Weekend,” “Why Baby Why” or “200 Proof Lovin’” are hard rocking numbers with one foot firmly placed in the honky tonk. A Blazing Grace is a welcome homecoming for the Scorchers, one of the most critically-acclaimed bands in the history of rock and roll. (Mammoth Records, released 1995)

Review originally published in the T-Bone insert of The Tennessean newspaper

Vintage Review: Bill Lloyd's All In One Place (2001)

Bill Lloyd is remembered by many as half of the popular country duo Foster & Lloyd, who recorded three hit albums during the late ‘80s. Lloyd has always been a rocker in his heart, however, and he’s enjoyed a successful career as a songwriter and session guitarist, playing with artists like Al Kooper, Kim Richey, Steve Earle, and Marshall Crenshaw. His fourth album, All In One Place, gathers a decade’s worth of Lloyd’s songs from various tribute albums and compilations.

A glorious collection of pop-influenced roots rock, Lloyd joyfully interprets songs by folks like the Hollies, Badfinger, Bobby Fuller, Todd Rundgren, and Harry Nilsson. He also throws in a few of his own spirited compositions, as well as songs co-written with artists like Dan Baird (Georgia Satellites), Jerry Dale McFadden (The Mavericks), and Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate). Think of a mix of the Beatles and the Kinks, with a slight Nashville twang, and you’ve nailed the pop-rock aesthetic that makes All In One Place an enormously charming collection of tunes. (Def Heffer Records, released 2001)

Review originally published by View From The Hill community newspaper, Signal Hill CA

Vintage Review: Steve Earle's Just An American Boy (2003)

Just a year after the release of his controversial album Jerusalem, alt-country giant Steve Earle has followed it up with the live set Just An American Boy. An audio companion to an upcoming concert DVD, this 2-CD set offers as complete a look at Earle’s talents as has been released. Your live-music-loving columnist has heard a half-dozen live Steve Earle albums through the years, most of ‘em bootlegs, and none stand up to the performances and song selection found on Just An American Boy.

Featuring a number of songs from Jerusalem, including “Ashes To Ashes” and “Amerika v. 6.0 (The Best We Can Do),” the album also includes musical snapshots from across Earle’s storied career, from “Guitar Town” and “Copperhead Road” to the classic “Christmas In Washington.” Earle rounds out the affair with a joyful rendition of Nick Lowe’s “What’s So Funny About Peace, Love & Understanding.” Earle’s effortless blend of traditional country, roots rock, bluegrass, and blues has been a major influence on the entire alt-country movement.

His championing of progressive politics and causes has shown Earle to be an intelligent and informed spokesperson for a leftist view of politics shunned by the major media. Ten years after many pundits declared his career dead, Just An American Boy proves that Earle keeps getting better as a songwriter and performer, with lots of life left in a career that has already achieved greatness. (E Squared/Artemis Records, released 2003)

Review originally published by View From The Hill community newspaper, Signal Hill CA

Vintage Review: Webb Wilder’s Acres of Suede (1996)

Webb Wilder has been kicking around the Southeast for about a decade now, wowing a loyal audience with an inspired musical blend of roots-rock, R & B, country, and raving psychobilly. He's done the major label thing, made a couple of passes through Europe, released a handful of critically-acclaimed records while touring the states constantly and still can't get a decent shot at the “big time.” His latest effort, the wonderful Acres of Suede, may not get Wilder noticed by a fickle, trend-oriented music-buying public, but it's a damn fine record nonetheless.
 

Webb Wilder’s Acres of Suede

A stylistically diverse collection of tunes delivered with heaping portions of sincerity and passion, Acres of Suede offers a musical soundtrack provided by a loose-knit collection of talented Nashville-area musicians which includes six-string wizard George “The Tone Chaperone” Bradfute and moonlighting Los Straitjackets' drummer Les James Lester. With long-time Wilder co-conspirator R.S. Field sharing production duties and collaborating on 11 of the album's 12 songs, the table is set for a typically wonderful WW musical experience.

Acres of Suede delivers on every expectation, a dozen rollicking tunes that run the stylistic gamut. “Fall In Place” is as poetic a tale of the diminished beauty of the South as has ever been written, delivered by Wilder in a gentle baritone while accompanied by K.K. Faulkner's soft, melodic backing vocals. “Flat Out Get It” is a rockabilly-styled rave-up while “Why Do You Call?” offers a tale of unrequited love from a different perspective.  

“Scattered, Smothered and Covered” offers a tale of seduction gone awry, mostly spoken lyrics backed by a steady repetitive riff, the choruses punched up with a sort of mid-‘60s Mersey Beat sound. “Lost In the Shuffle” evokes memories of Stevie Ray, being a fine representation of Texas barroom blues. Acres of Suede closes with the psychotronic “Rocket To Nowhere,” a classic swamp-rocker filled with trembling guitars and pounding drums that propel Wilder's deep, mesmerizing vocals to new heights.    

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

While not exclusively a “Southern Artist,” Wilder nonetheless brings all of the fervor of a tent revival to his albums, drawing upon the cultural depth and musical heritage of the old South in creating his trademark sound. Wilder's entire persona, the self-created and near-legendary “Last of the Full-Grown Men” is, indeed, an alter-ego unique to the South. The last of the boarding house residents, a rootless wanderer who knows every blue plate diner, greasy spoon, and thrift store in town, Wilder's character is the sort that never gets married, never has children, is always polite, and seems to travel through life on a plane apart from we mere mortals. Although every aspect of this character may not be an accurate representation of Wilder himself, with every passing season it becomes more so.

It's a powerful image, one perfectly suited to the music that Wilder performs and obviously cherishes. In the end, Wilder's biggest asset – the persona that allows him the luxury of life as a performer – may also be his greatest liability, mainstream audiences unyielding in their lack of acceptance of Wilder's charm and ability. He must either reconcile himself to eternal cult status and critical acclaim, and thus continue his considerable career on that basis, or throw in the towel altogether. For those of us who can see beyond the mask to the artist underneath, we certainly look forward to more from this underrated talent. (Watermelon Records, released 1996)

Review originally published by R Squared zine

Vintage Ads: Nashville Intelligence Report Halloween Party ad w/Shadow 15

Nashville Intelligence Report ad for the zine's halloween party featuring Shadow 15 & friends...it was a "spooktacular" good time!