Jason & The Scorchers
Wildfires & Misfires
Yep Roc Records 2031

by William Michael Smith

It's been quite a year for the release of reissues and rarities, but few measure up to the supercharged sonic nuggets from the vaults of one of the hardest working bands of the 1980's, Jason and the Scorchers. Always known for their combustible George-Jones-in-a-garage-band shows reflecting a salad bowl of influences that included Hank Williams and Jimmie Rodgers as well as The Ramones and The Sex Pistols, the Scorchers never achieved record sales commensurate with their reputation as one of the truly great live bands of the '80s. While they may have never captured the hearts of the mainstream record buying public, they had a fanatic cult-like following of diehards who "got it" -- and have never forgot it.

The album is an interesting compilation that documents all the recording periods in their 20-year run. Jason Ringenberg's pithy notes provide context about each song that add greatly to the package. For instance, regarding "Comin' Around" Ringenberg writes, "I later rewrote the lyrics to make them more 'catchy and memorable.' It became "When It All Comes Crashing Down.")

The album begins with the 1983 demo "that got us 'The Deal' with EMI America," a cover of Bob Dylan's "Absolutely Sweet Marie." The 1994 EMI Essential Jason and the Scorchers - Are You Ready For The County - Volume One greatest hits compilation contained two versions of the Scorcher's doing "Marie," a live and a studio version. Interestingly the demo version included here is even more frenetic and reckless than either of the official versions. The following track, the B-side of the original EMI demo, is an energetic version of one of the Scorchers' early signature standards, "Shop It Around."

As a historical document for those who never heard the Scorchers and don't know or understand the sound behind the legend, live tracks like "Lost Highway" recorded for the King Biscuit Flour Hour, the Swedish festival performance of "Tear It Up" with Link Wray joining the Scorchers in a nuclear guitar battle with Warner Hodges, or Hodges' admittedly raw but explosive 1985 live version of "Polk Salad Annie" are a perfect documentary primer for the uninitiated. For true believers, these tracks will only add to the Scorcher aura and myth and confirm that Ted Nugent's got nothing on Warner Hodges, now or then.

Ringenberg's comments about "Fallen Angel" illustrate how much strategy goes into putting an album together. Recorded for the Scorcher's Thunder and Fire album in 1988, the song was eventually left off the album because "unfortunately during that time a truckload of angel type songs came out so we decided not to use it." The track contains some of the slickest, most sophisticated backing harmonies ever recorded by the band. The blazing "Too Much Too Young" and "Break Open The Sky" are typical big-beat power chord Scorcher anthems from what Ringenberg has dubbed "The Demo Period" in 1988. "The Slow Train Never Ends" is also from that period but, rather than being a full-force Scorchers' rocker, it represents the other side of the band, the rootsy twanging retro-country sound. Hodges' mother, Blanche, sings the female part and is a perfect vocal foil to Ringenberg's high-pitched whine.

The first track the Scorchers recorded after reforming in 1993 was "Buried Like a Bone." While the track didn't make it onto the "A Blazing Grace" album, with Hodges' muscular trademark power chording in the fore the track will undoubtedly be a highlight of Wildfires and Misfires for Scorchers' enthusiasts. On Mel Tillis's "Ruby Don't Take Your Love to Town," the Scorchers' transform a country classic into a bluesy, hard-rocking steamroller track, another of their stylistic trademarks over the years. The track features Georgia Satellite Rick Roberts on slide guitar, and the intense interplay between Roberts and Hodges almost becomes a sensory overload. The Scorchers turn the familiar melody around on a driving tag ending that finds an even deeper and harder edged groove than many better known Scorcher rockers.

Despite its acoustic guitar and bass, a live acoustic version of "Jimmie Rodgers' Last Blue Yodel" recorded in Atlanta in 1995 "during the unplugged craze" doesn't conceal the Scorchers' usual over-the-top, blow-the-doors-off approach. There is also a speed-freak, full-metal-racket version of "Cappucino Rosie," an outtake from the Scorchers' one official live release, Midnight Roads and Stages Seen, that has more in common with AC-DC than with Ernest Tubb or Porter Wagoner. Hodges' solo is a show-stopper.

With its revealing combination of demos, outtakes, live recordings, and alternate versions that allow us to view the development and divine some of the thinking process that shaped the Scorchers' groundbreaking original albums, Wildfires and Misfires will certainly be required listening for diehards. The album is a telling document that shows a great band attempting to find its niche in a market dominated by the likes of Garth Brooks and Kenny Rogers on the one hand and the '80s metal rockers and the New Wave on the other. Like most things experimental and new, the Scorchers were way ahead of the public's ability to grasp, accept, and appreciate what they were doing. It is a sad fact that despite being acclaimed as both a great live band and a risk-taking, ground-breaking recording band, they never achieved the kinds of sales their combustive synthesis of country, punk, and rock deserved. Wildfires & Misfires won't correct that oversight, but for diehard believers just having these tracks will be another sign, another reason to keep the faith. And to those who don't know the Scorchers but who happen to somehow end up with their ears in front of copy of Wildfires & Misfires, well, those folks are either in for an epiphany or a shock to their musical system.

* Wildfires & Misfires has been released as part of the 20th anniversary of the revolutionary musical enterprise known as Jason and the Scorchers. The Scorchers are currently on a reunion tour. If they come your way, don't miss 'em. They are truly a one-of-a-kind band. The album can be purchased at www.redeyeusa.com Visit Jason Ringenberg at www.jasonringenberg.com for a full discography of the Scorchers as well as purchase information.


Contact William Michael Smith at: wms-at-rockzilla.net

 
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