On the Shelf 200: Jason Ringenberg
Nov. 16th, 2019 12:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedsitter23I remember Cowpunk looking to break through in the 1980s. MTV and local radio played Jason and The Scorchers and Rank and File. I think we are all pretty surprised it never did "break" any more than it did.
I have heard from more than one, that Jason's solo career as children's artist Farmer John is actually pretty good. The Scorchers reunited in 2010 with Halcyon Times, an album that was probably just as good as anything they had done.
Jason has a new solo record. Its introduction was a song that describes those CowPunk times when say, the Blasters or the Scorchers might open up for The Ramones.
It's a great story that everyone should hear once.
The album is good, too. Jason's voice was perfect for fronting a charged rock band. Slowed down, it's a bit tougher sell, as his voice is one of those filled with personality (like say, Jonathan Richman or Gordon Gano, or indeed, the early, early days of Country Music).
You pair that with some off the wall story songs that you really don't find any genre, except bluegrass. Besides Da Bruddas Ramones, there's John the Baptist, John Muir, a Civil War soldier, and rail-roading Hoboes. The final song "Farewell, Angelina" is Dylan via Baez, and fits in seamlessly.
Personally, I kind of dig the off-kilter subject matter. Jason never really fit comfortably in a genre, and now, he's even further into tough to pigeonhole territory like Jimmy Dale Gilmore and Chuck Mead.
Also, of note, the album seems to have been marinated in Sequoia National Park (where he was an artist in residence) in California and also in Southern Illinois- in my old stomping grounds of Carbondale and nearby locales.
I have heard from more than one, that Jason's solo career as children's artist Farmer John is actually pretty good. The Scorchers reunited in 2010 with Halcyon Times, an album that was probably just as good as anything they had done.
Jason has a new solo record. Its introduction was a song that describes those CowPunk times when say, the Blasters or the Scorchers might open up for The Ramones.
It's a great story that everyone should hear once.
The album is good, too. Jason's voice was perfect for fronting a charged rock band. Slowed down, it's a bit tougher sell, as his voice is one of those filled with personality (like say, Jonathan Richman or Gordon Gano, or indeed, the early, early days of Country Music).
You pair that with some off the wall story songs that you really don't find any genre, except bluegrass. Besides Da Bruddas Ramones, there's John the Baptist, John Muir, a Civil War soldier, and rail-roading Hoboes. The final song "Farewell, Angelina" is Dylan via Baez, and fits in seamlessly.
Personally, I kind of dig the off-kilter subject matter. Jason never really fit comfortably in a genre, and now, he's even further into tough to pigeonhole territory like Jimmy Dale Gilmore and Chuck Mead.
Also, of note, the album seems to have been marinated in Sequoia National Park (where he was an artist in residence) in California and also in Southern Illinois- in my old stomping grounds of Carbondale and nearby locales.
