Cowpunk pioneers Jason & the Scorchers enjoy a lofty standing within the indie rock ranks. They’ve received a minor degree of fame, with a series of critically-acclaimed albums and hundreds of dynamic live shows beneath their belts. They made the jump from their own indie label to a major label back when a band’s credibility wasn’t instantly in question, later going bankrupt due to excessive label expenses.
After a brief early ‘90s hiatus, the Scorchers returned to the indie world with a handful of brilliant, if underrated albums for Mammoth Records. Now they’ve come full-circle, releasing music on their own Courageous Chicken imprint through North Carolina indie Yep Roc Records. For these Nashville rock icons, it’s been a long strange trip, indeed.
This trip is partially documented by the recently released Wildfires + Misfires. The disc is a collection of Scorchers’ obscurities, demos and alternative versions that provides listeners with greater insight into the band’s creative process. It documents the Scorchers’ evolution from brash young punks into one of rock’s most talented, if overlooked bands. The set kicks off with the demo version of “Absolutely Sweet Marie” that won the band a major label contract and also includes red-hot unreleased live tracks like “Tear It Up” with legendary guitarist Link Wray and crowd favorite “Lost Highway.”
Rarities like “Too Much Too Young” and “Break Open the Sky” present the band in a different light while alternative takes of familiar songs like “If Money Talks” showcase the Scorchers’ range and abilities. Rather than a prurient look at a band’s past, Wildfires + Misfires is a vital collection of material that rewards loyal fans for their incredible dedication while presenting a living document of a work still in progress. (Courageous Chicken/Yep Roc Records)
Review originally published by the View From The Hill Community newspaper, Signal Hill CA
Seldom has a band received so much acclaim and developed such a loyal following as Jason & the Scorchers, yet never get any respect. Jason, Warner, Jeff and Perry have got to be the Rodney Dangerfields of the rock ‘n’ roll world. After a hiatus of several years, the original Scorchers’ line-up got back together a few years ago to record a solid collection of rock ‘n’ roll tunes called A Blazing Grace. It went nowhere outside of their hardcore circle of fans.
Now they’ve delivered what is arguably the finest album of their lengthy career in Clear Impetuous Morning and the signs are there for all to see that the effort is playing mostly to the choir, falling on those deaf ears who’d rather set down fifteen bucks for another Nirvana or Pearl Jam clone than actually grab something that would really get their adrenaline flowing. Even those nouveau country rockers over in the alt.country scene, while recognizing the Scorchers’ place in their holy pantheon, don’t seem to be falling over themselves to pick up a new Scorchers disc or two...
Jason & the Scorchers’ Clear Impetuous Morning
Clear Impetuous Morning finds the Scorchers mining the same country-flavored, roots-rock vein that they pioneered almost fifteen years ago. In this aspect, the band has never sounded better. Warner Hodges is an exemplary guitarist, a legend-in-waiting on the level of Keith Richards who plays with great skill and flash. Hodges tears off chainsaw riffs like some kid playing air guitar in his bedroom, breathing life into each song. Jason’s energetic vocal delivery is part Hank Williams, part Johnny Rotten, crooning sweet country twang on cuts like “I’m Sticking With You,” kicking out the jams with reckless, joyful abandon on rockers like “Victory Road.” The rhythm section of bassist Jeff Johnson and drummer Perry Baggs provide a steady beat and a strong backbone for the Scorchers performances, playing conservative foils to Jason and Warner’s rock ‘n’ roll crazed wild men.
Lyrically, Clear Impetuous Morning distinguishes itself through its maturity and wisdom. This foursome clearly aren’t the idealistic youngsters that they were in 1982, and every scar that they’ve received through the years can be found in these songs. Jason Ringenberg, always the Scorchers main songwriter, collaborates here with some new partners. Most notable of these is Nashvillian Tommy Womack, formerly of Mid-South legends Government Cheese. Together they put together some of the album’s hottest songs, like the new Scorchers’ show-stopper, “Self-Sabotage” or “Cappuccino Rosie.” A duet between Jason and Emmylou Harris on “Everything Has A Cost” proves to be a natural pairing, the two creating a haunting musical moment that is underlined by some strong six-string work from Hodges.
The Reverend’s Bottom Line
Sadly, the Scorchers seem doomed to be one of those bands who never receive a break, who never find themselves in the “right place at the right time.” If the masses refuse to pick up on an album as solid as Clear Impetuous Morning, what’s left for the band to try? As one of a handful who can truthfully say that I’ve been a fan of the band since the beginning, I marvel at the Scorchers ability to keep going in the face of adversity. They’ve suffered breaking up, getting back together again, three record labels, industry indifference, constant touring and mediocre sales for over a decade and a half. Yet they keep on rocking, cranking out some of the greatest music in the history of the genre, delivering night after night with great live performances. Like Rodney, they get nowhere near the respect they rightfully deserve. (Mammoth Records, released 1996)
The Reverend remembers watching…no, witnessing Jason & the
Nashville Scorchers tear apart a local club – Cantrell’s, maybe the
Exit/In – no matter, ‘cause those ol’ boys ripped it up like Link Wray and took
that building apart brick by (figurative) brick. Nobody, and I mean
nobody could take over a stage like Jason, Warner, Jeff, and Perry back
in the day, and if you had the cajones and the stamina, they’d keep on rockin’
until every last punter had dropped to the floor…
Anarchy In The Music City
Yup, back during the early ‘80s in the Music City, rock ‘n’ roll was a
man’s (and a few choice women’s) game, with bands fiercely rejecting the
country music establishment that had hung the albatross of the cornpone
Hee Haw image around the necks of we young soul rebels. Giants walked
the dark streets and back alleys of Elliston Place and Eighth Avenue and East
Nashville those days, outlaws like Raging Fire, the Dusters, Shadow 15, Webb
Wilder, the Bunnies, and many more who took the stage each night determined
not to quit rockin’ until the stinking cowtown corpse was permanently buried.
None of the musical giants of that era strode taller or played
faster and louder than Jason & the Nashville Scorchers (the
“Nashville” part was later dropped at the recommendation of some recordco
dunce). They were not only the most popular band in town for a long time, one
could make the argument that, for much of the world outside of Middle
Tennessee, they were the only band that mattered.
The Scorchers
were quite a spectacle, no matter what stage they conquered: while Jason
yelped and danced and spun around like a dervish with pants on fire, Warner
Hodges would play Keef to Jason’s Mick, tearing otherworldly sounds out of his
guitar that had been previously unheard by human ears. Bassist Jeff Johnson
was the epitome of cool, holding down the rhythm, while drummer Perry Baggs
was a madman on the skins, bashing the cans like Tennessee’s own John Bonham
while providing angelic harmony vocals behind Jason’s farm-bred Illinois
twang.
More importantly, at least to us on the street, the drones
on Music Row and the Nashville cultural establishment hated the
Scorchers with a passion, viewing them as either the Four Horsemen of the
Apocalypse, or as the end of everything good and green and holy about the
city. Legend has it that famed Nashville deejay Ralph Emery turned his nose up
at the Byrds when they played the Grand Ol’ Opry in 1967; a couple of decades
later, the Scorchers damn near gave the poor man a heart attack. Back on
Elliston Place, however, we knew the future of rock ‘n’ roll when we heard it,
and as the band began to expand its circle to the Southeast, and then Europe
with one fine record after another, it looked for a moment like our
predictions of Scorchers world dominance might come true…
Jason & the Scorchers’ Halcyon Days
Sadly, Jason & the Scorchers never got the respect that they
deserved; their records were under-promoted by the labels, or ignored in the
hope that the band might just go away. Tensions grew dire within the band,
members came and went, and by the time that grunge and the Seattle scene had
wiped the slate clean, the Scorchers had fallen by the wayside. Although a
mid-1990s Scorchers reunion would result in a pair of perfectly good studio
albums and a live set that came as close as technology would allow to
capturing the band’s anarchic onstage energy, it seemed as if stardom just
wasn’t in the cards for Jason & the Scorchers.
Flash forward to
2010…the Kings of Leon are the new cocks on the walk, the first Nashville
rockers to afford million-dollar homes, and it all seems so damn wrong. Sure,
the local music scene still exists on some level, but every young new band
seems to have its eye on the dollars and not the music, which is probably why
old ‘80s warhorses like Royal Court of China, Shadow 15, the Bunnies, et al
are drawing club crowds like it’s 1985 all over again, ‘cause the young ‘uns
wanna rock, dammit! They want none of this TMZ bullshit and celebrity band
status, just rock ‘n’ roll to feed the soul!
Into this vacuum step
a reunited Jason & the Scorchers with Halcyon Times, the band’s
first studio album in 14 years. Messrs. Ringenberg and Hodges still captain
the ship, new guys Al Collins (bass) and Pontus Snibb (drums) are on board to
man the rhythm section, and various musical contributions come from fellow
travelers like former Georgia Satellites frontman Dan Baird, Brit-rocker
Ginger of the Wildhearts, beloved Nashville icon Tommy Womack, and former
Scorchers bandmate Perry Baggs, who provides his lively harmonies to several
songs.
Somewhere on his Tennessee farm ol’ Jason must be hiding a
damn time machine, because Halcyon Times sounds more like 1985 than
2010, the new album re-capturing the joyous abandon of early Scorchers’ discs
like Reckless Country Soul or Fervor than anything they’ve done
since. Sure, it may not have been recorded in Jack Emerson’s living room
(R.I.P. Brother Jack), but Halcyon Times, produced by Hodges and
Nashville pop-rock wunderkind Brad Jones, offers an energy and immediacy
lacking in most modern recordings.
Moonshine Guy
The reasons behind the crackling livewire sound of the album comes from
the presence of an audience watching the band record from behind glass, and
the unlikely strategy of putting Jason live in the studio, singing along with
the band…something seldom done with today’s Pro Tools dominated recording
techniques. The result is an album that rocks like it was recorded in
somebody’s living room, but sounds like a well-made studio creation.
The songs on Halcyon Times are among the best the Scorchers
have ever delivered. The breakneck rocker “Moonshine Guy” is a paean to a
certain kind of individual that, while not restricted to the South, is
nevertheless a particularly Dixie-fried sort of character. With a punkish pace
and intensity, Jason sings of the guy that “loves the Stones, hates the
Doors/thinks the Beatles sing for girls/he’s a moonshine guy in a six-pack
world,” his rapidfire vocals telling of the sort of last-century diehard who
still yells “play Freebird” at any show he attends. A Celtic-flavored
instrumental interlude in the middle, titled “Releasing Celtic Prisoners,”
provides just enough relief for the band to charge back in to conclude the
song.
Although “Moonshine Guy” could be dismissed by some slackjaw
critics as a novelty, it’s really just a comic intro to a serious, joyful, and
reckless set of songs that show why the Scorchers, 25 years after their debut,
retain a fiercely loyal following from Lawrence, Kansas to London, England and
points beyond. The collaborative songwriting efforts on
Halcyon Times have produced some stellar results. Despite the
contemporary production values, the raging “Mona Lee” sounds like vintage
Scorchers with Hodges’ six-string gymnastics and Jason’s country soul vocals
accompanied by fluid bass lines and crashing drumbeats.
The
folkish “Mother of Greed” features some of Jason’s best vocals, the song
possessing an ethereal quality as the lyrics recount the passage of time and
cash-grab progress. The Hodges/Dan Baird guitarwork here is simply gorgeous,
their instruments intertwined in a beautiful melody until Hodges cuts loose
with a magnificent solo. The vocal harmonies provide a gauzy, otherworldly
quality to the mix. The album-closing “We’ve Got It Goin’ On” is the sort of
song that the Scorchers based their rep on, only writ large for the 21st
century. With shotgun lyrics delivered at 100mph above chaotic instrumentation
that echoes 1960s garage-rock intensity, Jason spits out almost
stream-of-consciousness lyrics that are nevertheless intriguing: “does an
empire falling ever make a sound?”; “diggin’ down in the here and now ‘til
tomorrow is yesterday”; “blacking out on a rush of pain kind of felt like home
to me.” I’m not sure what it all means, but it rocks and that’s good enough
for me!
Twang Town Blues
For all the band’s protestations that they wanted to make a record that
was forward-looking, the past casts a long shadow across Halcyon Times.
The Scorchers, after all, were the great white hopes of cowpunk; the critical
darlings with a cult following that were one song away from mainstream
mega-stardom. Although Ringenberg and Hodges have certainly come to grips with
their near-brush with infamy, somewhere deep inside them it has to chafe just
a bit…on many nights, the Scorchers were the best rock ‘n’ roll band in the
land, the Replacements and other pretenders to the throne be damned.
As
such, Halcyon Times includes many subtle, and some not-so-so subtle
references to days gone by, such as the inclusion of the nearly-subliminal
line from “Hot Nights In Georgia” that serves as a kick-off to the second part
of “Moonshine Guy.” The rockabilly-tinged “Getting’ Nowhere Fast” could be the
band’s theme song, a runaway instrumental freight train with Jason singing
“we’re getting nowhere fast faster than we’ve ever been, we’re getting nowhere
fast put the pedal to the metal again.” In many ways, the song is a statement
of defiance, and a gleeful one at that.
“Golden Days,” from which
the album takes its name, is a look backwards that charts the progress of a
fictional protagonist through the years, meaningful lyrics matched by another
solid vocal performance and a timeless pop-rock soundtrack with an infectious
chorus. The darkly humorous “Twang Town Blues” is the story of the Scorchers
and every other wild-eyed dreamer that landed in Nashville, or L.A., or New
York in search of fame and fortune. Telling the story of several such hopefuls
with talking blues vocals resting above a menacing swamp-rock theme, the line
“tonight he’ll kill a six-pack just to watch it die” shouts out to Johnny Cash
and Nashville’s checkered musical history with eerie effect.
Co-written
by Dan Baird with an eye specifically towards the Scorchers, “Days of Wine and
Roses” is the story of Jason and Warner and their often complicated
relationship. In many ways the song is the heart of Halcyon Times, Jason
singing “like a soldier that doesn’t know that it’s time to go home, and if
there’s no one else to hoist the flag, well I’ll go it alone” with a
world-weariness that only 25 years in the music biz can bring. Warner’s guitar
tones are mesmerizing, bringing a bright, emotional edge to the lyrics as
Jason sings “the days of wine and roses they are long dead and gone, carry on,
carry on…” The song positions the Scorchers – and specifically Jason and
Warner – as the veterans they are, old soldiers that refuse to go quietly into
that good night.
If “Days of Wine and Roses” is the heart of
Halcyon Times, then the pop-tinged rocker “Better Than This” serves as
the album’s soul. With Warner singing in a voice that is as distinctively hard
rock in nature as Jason’s is earthy country twang, the song delights in the
unbridled joy of making music. Above a raucous soundtrack with some red-hot
guitarwork, Warner sings “someday you just might find/as you’re looking back
in time/it gets good but it don’t get better than this.” No matter the band’s
trials and tribulations, minor successes, and failures, it all fades away once
they hit the stage.
The Reverend’s Bottom Line
Released independently by the band, Halcyon Times is unlikely to
set the charts on fire, although it’s certainly one of the best rock albums
that will be released in 2010. Sensing that it might be the band’s last stand
– or at least their last physical CD in an increasingly digital world – the
Scorchers have put together a beautiful CD package that includes great
graphics, and a thick booklet full of lyrics, photos, and liner notes sure to
thrill the hardcore faithful.
It’s the music that counts, though,
and here Jason & the Scorchers and friends have delivered in spades. The
album combines the reckless energy and enthusiasm of their youth with the
cautious optimism and mature talent of veteran musicians. With
Halcyon Times, the band rocks harder and sounds better than they ever
have. The Scorchers may be going nowhere fast, but they’re having a hell of a
time doing so… (Courageous Chicken/NashVegas Flash, released February 19th,
2010)
Review originally published by Blurt magazine, 2010
I’ve been a rabid Jason & the Scorchers fan for a full two decades
now, the band celebrating their twentieth anniversary this year. As such, it is
only fitting that Capitol/EMI saw fit to reissue the band’s excellent 1986
sophomore album, Still Standing on CD for the first time. While listening
to this album for the thousandth time, however, I came to a conclusion, maybe
even a mini-epiphany. Like a lot of rock ‘n’ roll visionaries, listeners
understood where the Scorchers were coming from or they didn’t; you got ‘em or
you ignored them.
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
