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JASON AND THE
SCORCHERS |
|
For Immediate Release
February 4, 2010
JASON & THE
SCORCHERS DELIVER FIRST ALBUM OF NEW MATERIAL SINCE 1996
Nashville Americana Legends Return with Halcyon Times
February 23
Nashville, TN—Legendary
Nashville rock band
Jason & The Scorchers,
who won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Americana Music
Conference in 2008, return February 23 with their first album of new
material since 1996, Halcyon Times. With its release,
Jason & The Scorchers have accomplished an extremely rare feat –
deep into their career, they have made a rock ‘n’ roll record every
bit as dynamic and mind-blowing as their vintage work. Very few rock
bands can make this claim. Jason & The Scorchers can, they should,
and they do. Indeed, Halcyon Times is a true career
record.
In addition to founding members Jason Ringenberg and Warner E.
Hodges, Halcyon Times marks the band’s first recording with
its muscular new rhythm section of bassist Al Collins (Stacie
Collins) and young Swedish drummer Pontus Snibb (Bonafide, Snibb).
In addition, the album was co-produced by Brad Jones (Chuck Prophet,
Over the Rhine, Tim Easton, Hayes Carll, Justin Townes Earle) and
features special guest contributions from Dan Baird of Homemade Sin,
Ginger from The Wildhearts, and Tommy Womack. Halcyon Times
also contains a 24-page booklet with extensive photos, lyrics, and
liner notes from each member of the band as well as the guest
players on the record.
Halcyon Times is no “return to their roots.” It is instead
a creative leap forward, showing the band at its peak, not on some
sort of self-absorbed nostalgia trip. “Moonshine Guy” opens the
record, full of bravado and bravery, driven by a character who “yells
and he roars / likes The Stones, hates the Doors.” Whilst
“Mona Lee” is certainly as exciting as anything the band has ever
recorded, but it’s hard to pick a standout track on the record -
they are all that strong. Hodges’ guitar work is better than ever,
full of style and inspired originality, while Ringenberg rocks like
he is still 18, leaping off the edge of the world, laughing while
doing it. Snibb and Collins supply that elusive, magic rock ‘n’
roll groove, full of energy but grounded in confident and unhurried
power.
However, like all classic rock records, Halcyon Times has
more than enough moments of sublime grace to balance out the
hormones. Listen to the 12-string guitar on “Land of the Free.”
It’s like stepping into a Steinbeck novel. Or put on headphones and
let “Mother of Greed” take you down a road that winds from northern
Wales in 1910 to Birmingham, Alabama, in 2009, the protagonists
careening from one set of “arms of need” into another. It’s that
kind of song, literary without being pretentious. In terms of
production, it’s hard to imagine a better team than Warner Hodges
and Brad Jones. They succeeded in making a JATS record that captures
the live energy of the band, with enough added ear candy to keep you
coming back repeatedly. This release almost demands multiple
listening experiences; there is so much to take in.
Fourteen songs deep, covering a staggering range of emotions and
style, Halcyon Times shows Jason & The Scorchers are still
expanding that creative envelope, still in command of their legacy.
You can bet your life that in concert they will deliver with equal
majesty.
For more information, please visit
www.jasonandthescorchers.com
What They’re Saying About Jason & The Scorchers’
Halcyon Times
“Frontman Jason Ringenberg and guitarist Warner Hodges recount
the joys of rock 'n' and family life, starting with the teenage
thrill of dropping five bucks at a record store for the pleasure
of unfettered access to Jerry Lee Lewis' music.”—Brian
Mansfield, USA Today’s Pick of the Week
“….plays like a tour through thirty-five years of punk-rock
energy, from the Ramones to the Replacements to Green Day. The
Scorchers always had one of the best band names, and now they
have one of the best bands again.”—Ben Greenman, The New
Yorker
“Like ‘Golden Days’ and the album itself, the final song has a
title that could refer to Jason and the Scorchers' rebirth, and
the fact the band is as good as ever, if not better. It's called
‘We've Got It Going On.’ Do they ever.”—Nick Cristiano,
Philadelphia Inquirer
“Jason and the Scorchers can lay claim to being the Godfathers
of Americana…and they still can’t be beaten. Vocalist Jason
Ringenberg rides the wild decibels like Slim Pickens straddling
his H-bomb in Dr. Strangelove, while guitarist-dynamo Warner E.
Hodges is enduringly on fire.”---UNCUT (UK)
“And although Halcyon Times is the band's first studio
disc since 1996 (and features a new rhythm section), this
Hodges/Brad Jones-produced carpet bomb betrays no traces of
dust, rust or creeping age. Jason's distinctive, clearwater
twang is spot-on, Hodges shreds like a beast unleashed, and the
new material -- lovingly crafted with help from Tommy Womack,
Dan Baird, Arty Hill, Richard Fagan and The Wildhearts' Ginger
-- is first-rate. Burn, baby, burn...”—Jim Musser, Iowa
City Press Citizen
“Halcyon Times connects from start to finish, combining
Ringenberg's evocative lyrical styling with smoking, slashing
guitar, some twang and an in-the-pocket rhythm section. That's
called rock 'n' roll, boys and girls, and, recently, nobody's
done it better.”—Kent Wolgamott, Lincoln Journal Star
“Indeed, the joy of a great band playing together at its best
pours out of every note on this record, and we can’t help but be
swept up in the glee. Brad Jones‘ bright, shiny production
sometimes seems at odds with the Scorchers’ gritty groove, but
the band’s organic sound always wins out. Halcyon Days
is as strong as a comeback record as any Scorchers fan could ask
for.”—Michael Toland, The Big Takeover
“On the first new Scorchers album in 14 years, Jason Ringenberg
and Warner Hodges reteam to redefine cowpunk, from the high
octane misfit anthem ‘Moonshine Guy’ to the
free-for-all charge of ‘Gettin’ Nowhere Fast.’”—Walt Tunis,
Lexington Herald Leader
“Halcyon Times, the band’s first album in far too long,
is 14 tracks of molten, sawdust-scented magic, recorded live in
the studio in front of one seriously lucky audience. There are
no added ingredients, because the songs don’t need any — it’s
just, as the old saying goes, three chords and a cloud of
dust.”—Jeff Giles, Popdose
“Jason & the Scorchers stand ready to influence a new generation
of reckless country soul rockers.”—Jim Beal, San Antonio
Express News
“As one of the players exclaims at the end of a track, “I knew
there was a reason I woke up this morning!” Listening to
Halcyon Times is reason enough.”—Bill Kopp’s Music Blog
“Jason & The Scorchers do anything but rest on their laurels on
Halcyon Times. Not simply content to repeat the past,
the band uses Halcyon Times to confirm their past and
begin building on their sound for the future ahead. If the music
therein is any indication, the Halcyon Times have yet
to end for Jason & The Scorchers.”—Wildy Haskell, Wildy’s
World
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