Photograph by Tony Mottram
These days, you’re more likely to see Jason Ringenberg in his guise as children’s music performer Farmer Jason than see him fronting the hard-rocking, proto-alt-country band Jason & the Scorchers.
“The Farmer Jason thing is the center of my career now,” Ringenberg says by phone in a voice made ragged by a show in Raleigh, North Carolina, the night before. “But Jason & the Scorchers is something I do for personal satisfaction. It’s such a joy—it’s so much fun. But Farmer Jason pays the mortgage.”
It’s the Scorchers, however, that are bringing Ringenberg to St. Louis Friday night for a show at Off Broadway, billed as a 30th anniversary celebration of the band, which formed in Nashville in 1981. Of the original lineup, only Ringenberg and guitarist Warner Hodges remain, with the drum and bass slots being filled since 2008 by Pontus Snibb and Al Collins, respectively.
What follows is the lion’s share of our conversation from earlier this week.
You just recorded your New Year’s Eve show in Nashville for a DVD release. Other than it being New Year’s Eve, was that a special date for the band?
Traditionally, New Year’s Eve is when we celebrate our birthday. ‘Cause that was the first time we played with the four of us—Perry [Baggs], Jeff [Johnson] and me and Warner, back in ‘81. So we decided that would be a good opportunity to film it for a DVD.
Well, it’s easy to remember. Like my college roommate, who got married on his birthday so he’d never forget his anniversary.
Now there’s a smart guy right there.
How was the show itself?
It was good. When you play your hometown, you never know. Sometimes the gigs can be really magic and sometimes they’re disappointing. It can be like playing for your family.
Could be worse. Could be a roomful of journalists.
[Laughs.] There’s worse things than a roomful of journalists. But you’re right. They can be a tough crowd.
So it’s the Scorchers’ 30th anniversary, but that’s with time taken out for breakups, solo projects, etc. It’s 30 years, but as the crow flies, so to speak.
Yeah, we did it as the crow flies. You’re right. There was a three-year period where we weren’t even an organization. And then of course, from ‘98-2007 or so was kind of a down time for us. But we did some shows in that period, too.
What made things comeback together to the extent that you released a new album, Halcyon Times last year?
It was the confluence of a lot of things. Jeff left in ‘97.That was a big blow. And Perry left in 2000, and that was an even bigger blow. From 2002 on, I just basically was looking for any excuse to let the thing go without being blamed for it [laughs]. But we did some shows and things and then we started getting the right guys together. It took a long time to find good replacements. Once we had Al and Pontus in place, it was kind of magic.
Does it feel like a new band to you, or a continuation of what came before?
It doesn’t really feel like the old band. But it has a lot of the old spirit, a lot of the old energy. There’ve been a lot of different versions of the band, and sometimes it was the same four guys, but different versions of where our heads were. I think most folks would consider the ‘84-’85 band to be our best. But I think this version of it now is very close to that. It’s an excellent band.
Your drummer, Pontus Snibb…geez, that name sounds like something out of Dickens.
[Laughs] It does, at that. He’s a character. Replacing Perry was really hard. We went through a lot of guys. And some of ‘em were really heavy hitters, and really good. But it never gelled. Once Pontus sat down there, something just happened. It just clicked. Unfortunately, he lives in Sweden. Getting together to rehearse or to jam is a bit of a project, but we can make it work.
I think it’s also important that you’re moving forward with new material—and good material at that—which keeps it from being an oldies revue or a reunion that’s just for a paycheck.
Exactly. That’s one of the reasons we’re celebrating this 30-year thing. We’re calling it a celebration rather than an anniversary. We’re not really celebrating a date where we did this a long time ago, we’re celebrating the fact that, 30 years on, we’re still making music. That’s something to be proud of, I think.
When the Scorchers started out, there was no real template for mixing punk and country. I think the first thing I heard was “Fervor,” and I remember thinking how different it was. What was the scene like that you were operating out of?
We definitely created a scene, but we came out of—they called it New Wave in those days. We came out of that circuit. Very, very small clubs around the South and in the East. They were playing bands like R.E.M. and the Replacements and us. All these bands were really small-time, operating out of vans. As far as the alternative-country thing that became a scene, we pretty much helped create that out of nothing.
But the alt-country thing didn’t really catch fire until much later. Here in St. Louis, we were well aware of bands like Uncle Tupelo and the Bottle Rockets, of course [Bottle Rockets frontman Brian Henneman is opening for the Scorchers]. Do you feel at all slighted in terms of being acknowledged as forbears of alt-country?
Not at all. That ‘90s explosion of alt-country was good for us, as being consider the godfathers of it, the grandfathers of it. That was always good.
I just finished reading Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum’s I Want My MTV, which takes place primarily in the ‘80s, which was the big MTV decade. All you really needed was a video and a weird haircut. But you never caught on in that regard.
The band had a strong image, and that probably helped us a little bit. But we were never able to become an MTV band like others did.
On the other hand, there doesn’t seem to be a Kajagoogoo 30th anniversary tour in the works.*
[Laughs] What a name! How did they ever come up with that?
So what’s next?
We’re going to tour Europe in the fall and we’ll have the DVD out later this year. That’s as far as we look ahead. I think it’s a possibility the band could record again, but we’ll see. There’ll be a new Farmer Jason record out soon, too.
That will be on [the] Courageous Chicken [label], I’m guessing? Is that your own imprint?
That’s my imprint. It’s what I use for all the Farmer Jason and the solo stuff. I was into chickens before chickens were cool.
*Which shows what I know. Apparently, the band made famous by its 1983 hit “Too Shy,” is actually still a going concern. —D.D.
Jason & the Scorchers perform at 9 p.m. at Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp. $15-$18 advance; $18-$21 day of show. For more information, call 314-773-3363.
