Jason & The Scorchers cover George Jones!

I was saddened to hear of the passing of country vocalist George Jones (obituary) yesterday. Jones is legendary for many reasons but was revered primarily for being one of the most skilled vocalists in the music's history. While my own country pantheon is dominated by song-writers like Williams, Cash, Miller, Haggard, Earle etc.,  it's hard not to be awed at The Possum's performance in songs as different as "White Lightning" and "He Stopped Loving Here Today".





Now Jones did do some song-writing in his time and, in fact, his breakout hit from 1956, "Why Baby Why", was co-written with long-time friend and frequent collaborator, Darrell Edwards. Nashville's cow-punks Jason & The Scorchers, who've always shown exquisite taste in covers, chose to do do a rip-snortin' version of JOnes and Edwards' "Why, Baby, Why" on their ridiculously under-rated "A Blazing Grace " album in 1995. Check it out!





Here's Jones' original.





Any thoughts on the passing George "No Show" Jones can be left in the COMMENTS section.

Jason & The Scorchers: Absoluteley Sweet Marie (Live '89)

Clinton Heylin's frustrating but by turns fascinating punk history, Babylon's Burning gives ample, overdue credit to Jason & The Scorchers but lays bare the almost open-warfare between Jason Ringenberg's love of gut-bucket country and Warner Hodge's devotion to sleazy rock n' roll. So strong were their differences, that, according to Heylin, Ringenberg only convinced Hodges to do their career-defining version of Bob Dylan's "Absolutely Sweet Marie" by not telling him it was a cover!

Jason adds, "(Hodges) had some country influences because his dad and mom were country singers... He always said that country music was shoved down his throat and he hated it" but then anyone seeing them perform live or listening to their albums knows that Warner's no Chet Atkins (and that Jason's no Bon Scott). That unresolvable tension can result in either a blazing hybrid or a dog's breakfast. An example of the latter might be 1989's Thunder and Fire, where Jason's fine country songs are frequently run off the road by dull Big Rock guitars whizzing all over the place. When the twain actually meet and race off on songs like "Bible and a Gun" or the cover of Phil Och's "My Kingdom For a Car" it almost brings the album back home.

In this interview (done before the Lyon show) the tensions are laid gloriously bare as Warner talks up ZZ Top and AC/DC while Jason lays it on the line for Bob Dylan and The Ramones! Part two here.

(Can't say it works for me but other may not agree...)


This performance in Lyon, from the Thunder and Fire tour on which they opened for Dylan for a spell, shows them in all their two-guitar glory doing songs from their entire career and stopping to cover Merle Haggard ("Sing Me Back Home"), The Rolling Stones ("It's All Over Now") and John Denver ("Take Me Home Country Roads").

The Lyon Tapes Link is in the comments

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Jason & The Scorchers: Live in Philidephia

This FM broadcast from 1984 has comparable sound quality to the official live release, Rock On Germany.

Fuck, what a raging full-on live band!

Link for Live in Philadelphia in the comments.

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Jason & the Scorchers: Rock On Germany

Of course it was as a whirling & thrashing live band that Jason and The Scorchers almost converted a skeptical world to their shit-kicking cow-punk.

Sadly such hyphenated-hybrids rarely work in the land of rock n' roll and country's birth. As with Steve Earle (one of Jason's many co-writers) whose heavy metal-bluegrass only sold in Canada, Jason & the Scorchers' greatest success lay outside their hometown. In England "Shop It Around" hit the Top Forty and the band went down a storm in Germany* where this slightly-boxy sounding (and now out-of-print) live recording was made.

*The only other true devotee of the cow-punk genre I've ever met, was a German co-worker at one of my earliest record store jobs - so, Andreas if you're out there somewhere this one is for you!

Rock On Germany link is in the comments

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Jason & The Scorchers: Reckles Country Soul

As I've said before, "Cow-punk, roots-rock, alt-country, y'alternative, whatever damn term you use for music that hurts like country and hits like rock n' roll, you're gonna come back to Jason and the Scorchers." (See me review of the new album here.)



And this, Reckless Country Soul, is where it all began back in 1982. It's a four song e.p. recorded under the name, Jason & The Nashville Scorchers which was later re-issued on CD with out-takes from their 1983 e.p Fervor, which had brought them to fame via...are you regular readers ready for this?... a cover of Bob Dylan's "Absolutely Sweet Marie":

The Scorchers sound, a shotgun re-marriage between rock n' roll and country, who'd been divorced after separate sordid affairs involving The Eagles and Kenny Rogers, is clearly being worked out in these early sessions. While the gonzo covers by Hank Williams and Jimmie Rodgers are fine statements of purpose, it's not till the later track, the lonesome, "Pray For Me Momma, I'm a Gypsy Now", that it's obvious that this union will be fruitful.

Reckless Country Soul link is in the comments

Speaking of comments, What's you take on Jason & the Scorchers' sound?

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