Jason Ringenberg

Stand Tall

Courageous Chicken Music

Punk-country icon Jason Ringenberg is back with his first solo album in 15 years.  He is still touring with Jason & the Scorchers, but this is a special project  inspired by nature and trees, in the biggest way possible. That’s because Ringenberg was commissioned as the artist-in-residence at Sequoia National Park in northern California. The National Park Service provided him a remote mountain cabin for an uninterrupted month in order to write and work on his music.  {Note: This is not entirely unusual, the same opportunity in different parks are granted to other writers as well}

Ringenberg says. “The first day I was there it snowed six inches. The hikes were beautiful beyond description. I often didn’t see another human all day. At night I read Peter Cooper’s book Johnny’s Cash and Charley’s Pride by candlelight, since the cabin had no light power. As Dylan said in Tangled Up in Blue, ‘Every one of those words rang true and glowed like burning coal.’ I began to own within myself that I could and should make new music. I opened the door to whatever might come through it. Little did I know the song stampeded that was waiting just outside.”

The album begins with the title track, a majestic instrumental intended to capture the beauty of the place. You’ll hear western motifs and might be reminded of those television soundtracks to shows like Bonanza. From there, it’s mostly about characters on a mission, whether it be “John the Baptist Was a Real Humdinger,” to, rather inevitably, “John Muir Stood Here,” to Confederate resignation in “I’m Walking Home” to his own recollection of opening for the Ramones in 1982 (“God Bless the Ramones”). It’s a wide scope, from nature guru John Muir (to whom he also nods in “Here in the Sequoias”) to the punk-rockers, The Ramones, but it all speaks to Ringenberg’s inspirations.

Sprinkled in are a couple of covers, Jimmie Rodgers’ “Hobo Bill’s Last Ride,” Hugh Deneal’s “Almost Enough,” Johnny McCrae’s “Many Happy Hangovers to You” and Dylan’s “Farewell Angelina,” that hearkens back to his college days. We also get Ringenberg’s trademark humor in tunes like “Lookin’ Back Blues, co-written with Arty Hill where the chorus has these memorable lines – “Every time I drive down memory lane/All I find is a pile of pain/I get the lookin’ back blues and/I don’t mean Luckenback Texas.”

While the album was written in California, Ringenberg returned to his southern Illinois roots to record the songs.  Relying on the core rhythm section of his first rock band, Shakespeare’s Riot, plus a rural tin-roofed studio helped him create the kind of raw sound he was looking for. It ranges from straightforward Americana to classic country and country-rock, not the blaring punk of his Scorchers. He then enlisted the help of some of Nashville’s best to round the sound. Guitarist Richard Bennett, multi-instrumentalist Fats Kaplan, lap steel player Steve Fishell and Robert Bowlin (fiddle player for Bill Monroe) all contribute.

“Writing songs while standing under 2000-year-old sequoias does tend to give you a leg up,” says Jason. This is an enjoyable listen. Ringenberg has a strong knack for stories and word play, and presents it all honestly, (with a grin or two along the way). Ringenberg remains one of our living legends and it’s great to hear from him again.

• Jim Hynes

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