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| Rock On Germany Jason & The Scorchers Courageous Chicken Records - JMR002 |
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But when I went out to the mailbox, something was odd. The envelope was too thick. There was more than one CD in the package, I was certain. I couldn't imagine why he would send two copies. I opened the package. Sure enough, there were two CDs inside. There was indeed a copy of A Pocketful of Soul. But when I saw the other CD, I was dumbfounded. I went in the house and found my wife and just said, "Oh my God, look at this" and handed her the CD. On the cover was a young Jason Ringenberg, dressed in his full-dress western stage outfit, complete with rhinestone J's on both collars of his shirt. Affixed to the plastic shrink wrap was a small sticker that said, "Included in the book Bootlegs: The Secret History of the Other Recording Industry as one of the top 100 bootlegs of all time." It was "Rock On Germany." This was no mere CD, a recorded collection of songs and notes. This was the musical equivalent of the Ark of the Covenant, for the Scorchers pre-dated the alt-country movement by at least 5 years, had single-handedly invented an entire new genre of music, cowpunk, had set a new standard for live performances, and had blasted the Chet Atkins- But the band had never done a live recording until 1998's "Midnight Roads and Stages Seen." To a fan of cowpunk or alt-country or Americana or whatever you want to call it, unexpectedly finding "Rock On Germany" in a plain manila envelope with a Dickson, Tennessee postmark was the equivalent of finding one of the Dead Sea Scrolls in a cave on a Judean hillside. I e-mailed a brief thank you to Mr. Ringenberg and informed him that I had set "Rock On Germany" aside and wouldn't open it until I had finished the review of "Pocketful of Soul." Reading the liner notes, I learned the album was surreptitiously recorded by one of only 30 fans who showed up to hear the Scorchers in a club in Cologne, Germany the night of June 23, 1985 and was released as a limited-edition vinyl bootleg. The liner notes also described the recording quality as "low fidelity." I had heard bootlegs before, having once owned a copy of Bob Dylan's historic Albert Hall performance with The Band at which the crowd had been so shocked and enraged by Dylan's electrification of his music they had loudly booed and heckled him, so while I appreciated the honest advertising by Mr. Ringenberg, I knew what "bootleg" sound implied. I don't want to lose credibility by veering off intoTexan hyperbole (a.k.a. lying, bragging or stretching the truth), but I don't really know how to properly describe what a Scorchers show is like to the uninitiated. But I saw the Rolling Stones in the old days and versus the Scorchers, that's no contest. If you don't believe me, may I suggest you e-mail Mr. Ringenberg at courageouschicken-at-cs.com, put your money in the envelope, and get yourself a copy of "Rock On Germany" delivered to your mailbox. Play it after you listen to the Stone's "Live at the Mocambo" Toronto club recording and I think you'll see I speak the truth. I guarantee that you have never heard a band with this much energy. And you don't get any of that pretentiousness or that preening rock star prissiness you get with the Stones. The Scorchers were in their fourth year of existence when this recording was made. There is little doubt that they were on the top of their game by this stage of their career. They already had two fine records under their belts, the original groundbreaking cowpunk milestone "Reckless Country Soul" (which was their own early description of the type of music they played) and the more polished and commercially accessible "Lost and Found." But as Scott Schinder has so accurately pointed out in the liner notes, "It was in the full-tilt mania of the band's live shows that the Scorchers' audacious vision truly came to volcanic life." Friends, I'm here to testify that I've been there and seen that. Scott Schinder speaks nothing but the truth. The Scorchers faded out of site in the early 90's, all burned out and various band members troubled by the usual problems attendant to rock and roll life: alcohol, dope, divorce and debt. Ringenberg did a solo country record that was well received critically, but after that went so far as to paint houses to keep afloat financially. But eventually the band members with substance problems cleaned themselves up, and bassist Jeff Johnson approached the others about a reunion tour and the Scorchers rose from the ashes and toured again in 1995. Columbia Records jumped on the bandwagon, repackaged some of the band's work and issued "Are You Ready For The Country: Jason and the Scorchers 21 Greatest Hits" (although they didn't give the band any support). I took my son, now a guitarist with a popular Dallas country band, to see the Scorchers when they passed through Houston that year at the wonderful old Fitzgerald's. I have no doubt it changed his life. He still talks about that concert to this day. He was 16 years old. There was no escaping the Scorchers once they had you in a little room and the lights went down. Ringenberg is similar to Mick Jagger in the sense that he is a whirling dervish and a very dynamic and engaging personality, yet he is humble enough to never cross over the line into "I'm cool" pretenses and posturing. The Iowa boy who grew up on a hog farm will jump up on the bar and dance while singing, roam through the crowd, crawl up on the drum platform and leap through the air, and wave his arms around like a windmill in a sandstorm onstaage. Constantly smiling and engaging guitarist Warner Hodges not only plays like a Tasmanian devil, he has developed a trick of throwing his guitar over his shoulder and having it travel a complete 360 around his body and catching the instrument perfectly so as not to miss the next lick - or to even cause the ash to fall from his ever present cigarette. Johnson's bass was big and fast and pulsing, and little Perry Baggs was a drumming dynamo. I have never seen four men work harder or put on more of a show. As usual, they started with Hank Williams ('So Lonesome I Could Cry') and finished with Hank Williams ('Hony Tonk Blues'). During the show, my son saw that Hodges had a sticker on his Marshall amp, but we couldn't make out what it said from where we were situated, so he wormed his way down to stand in front of the Stratocaster madman. The sticker said "DANGER. Sober Man At Work." If you doubt any of what I have said above, seriously, buy this record and hear for yourselves. The record opens with a decidedly Scottish voice intoning, "Good evening boys and girls. Please welcome from Nashville, Tennessee, Jason and the Scorchers." Within half a second, pandemonium ensues. The way the Scorchers could jumpstart a show was simply without equal. Their stagecraft and use of lighting always brought that little tingle of anticipation as the drama built before the music started. Just as they did at hundreds of shows, they left the launch pad in Cologne with their hyper version of Hank Williams' Lost Highway.' But in typical "no prisoners" fashion, they segued straight into another of their atomic originals, Last Time Around.' The fidelity is poor, but big magic comes through anyway. (The low fidelity is just a good excuse to turn it up LOUD. At least that's the logic I'm working with.)
Listening to the 20 songs contained on this CD, I was reminded again how strong the Scorchers songwriting had been. While huge commercial success had never really touched the band, the critics had raved about their songs and music. Fans like me could sing them for you in the shower in the morning or three sheets to the wind after midnight, because there was a power in those songs most bands could never achieve. "Rock On Germany" includes Scorchers favorites 'Shop It Around,' 'Hot Nights In Georgia,' 'Harvest Moon,' the hilarious 'If Money Talks' ("if money talks, I wish it would speak to me/'cause I need good conversation it's plain to see"), Bagg's composition 'White Lies,' the Scorchers' signature song, 'Broken Whiskey Glass' and their poignant country lament, 'Pray For Me Momma, I'm A Gypsy Now.' The rendition of 'Gypsy' on "Rock On Germany" is noteworthy for its pace. For while most of the concert is a full scale attack on the aural and physical senses, 'Gypsy' is in fact done at an even slower pace than the original studio version. The pace is so slow, yet the band is so together that the effect verges on a religious experience. Amateurs can get it right on the fast ones, but it takes true pros to perform a tune at this pace. These are the guys going to the All-Star game. The Scorchers were not only known for their own fine original songs, they were known for covering a wide body of songs by less than obvious performers (their 1995 recording of John Denver's 'Rocky Mountain High' as a speed-metal number thrilled hardcore Scorchers' fans, but left Denver purists dazed and confused). On "Rock On Germany," they belt out Hank Williams' 'You Win Again,' Credence Clearwater's 'Travelin' Band,' 'Absolutely Sweet Marie,' Chuck Berry's 'Around and Around' (duck and cover, Rolling Stones!), and close the show with Williams' 'Honky Tonk Blues.' The Columbia Records greatest hits compilation had included two versions of Bob Dylan's 'Absolutely Sweet Marie' (the first cut and the last). The first version had been done in the studio. The closer had been recorded live. You could barely discern any difference unless you focused all your attention on searching for differences. According to Columbia's publicists, the point had been to demonstrate that the Scorchers essentially recorded in the studio the same way they played their concerts. "Rock On Germany" proves that point beyond any doubt. Despite the fidelity and a rough, abrupt cut between 'You Win Again' and 'Harvest Moon' when the bootlegger must have had to turn his tape over, you owe it to yourself to get this rare CD. Unless you get lucky and catch the Scorchers on a night when it all comes together again perfectly (and I have to admit I saw them in Houston at the Satellite Lounge in 1997 when they were at the top of their game, so it just could happen), you owe it to yourself to get this record. They aren't making records or bands like this anymore. Elvis has left the building. *To purchase "Rock On Germany" or to find out more about Jason & The Scorchers, Jason Ringenberg, or Courageous Chicken Records, go to www.jasonringenberg.com or email courageouschicken-at-cs.com
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Jason Ringenberg doesn't fool around when it comes to taking care of his new business, the aptly named Courageous Chicken Records. I had e-mailed Ringenberg three days earlier about the possibility of reviewing his new solo release, A Pocketful of Soul. Within a few hours, he e-mailed back personally saying he'd love for us to review the record and that it was in the mail.
Then we hear the Scorcher-in-chief himself, Jason Ringenberg, working the tiny crowd. "Well, there's not too many of you, but I bet you're gonna be a loud bunch. We'd like to a play a song for you by our good friend from up in Canada, Mr. Neil Young. Are you ready for the country?" And they ignite the rockets again and blast off into Young's 'Are You Ready for the Country,' always a mainstay on the Scorcher set list. I marveled at how close to the original studio version the live version was. And typical of their hell hounds on the prowl attitude, they again segued without a pause directly into a song at twice the tempo, 'I Can't Help Myself' ("when I help myself to you."), just as though they'd all simultaneously stuck their fingers in a 220 volt electric socket. Baggs is perfect on the drums.
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