Welcome to the nessmp3.com site of legendary Nashville singer-songwriter and alt-country, cow-punk pioneer Jason Ringenberg co founder of Jason and The Scorchers, seminal Alt-Country pioneers.

Jason Ringenberg's Fruits of Honest Labor

by Tommy Womack

A couple of years ago Jason and I were doing a run of dates together through the snowy Midwest. I was road-ragged and he was fresh as a daisy. He'd driven across Alaska not long before and spent six weeks in Sweden and England and Holland before that! We got to talking about farm life and how Jason and his brother grew up feeding the hogs at five in the morningeveryday. "You know," Jason said to me, "My brother and I worked ALL the time. It was incredibly hard work for an adult, let alone a skinny 9 year old boy. It was a never ending cycle feeding the hogs, cleaning out the hog houses (by hand), hauling water and straw, or working the fields. It didn't matter if it was New Years Day or 105 degrees in the shade, the work never stopped. We never thought a thing about it. It's just what we did." It's still what he does. That work ethic learned early, and his boundless energy, came to make him the force he became in later years.


Jason Ringenberg and Warner Hodges (The Scorchers) click photo for Warners nessmp3 site.


The House Concert Hub
A house concert is a chance to experience music in a warm and intimate environment. perhaps even see a favorite artist in your own home. This is a place for artists guests and hosts to network

Visit The House Concert European Hub (& Acoustic Music Club Network)


The Flyin Shoes Motel
For americana, folk and blues fans ..a fifties motel lounge full of musicians, instruments and bottles and a stuffed armadillo of course..

Visit FLYINSHOES AMERICANA MOTEL

Hello My Europe Farmer Jason “farmhands”,

Just wanted to tell you that the Farmer Jason PBS video program earned an Emmy Award for Best Children’s Program Mid South Region. It was quite a suprise, given our competition were big well funded established shows. I didn’t even have a speech prepared, but I thought one up pretty fast!

Thank you for your continued support of my careers, and stay warm!

Farmer Jason



Farmer Jason / Jason Ringenberg
P.O. Box 594
Bon Aqua, Tennessee 37025

Americana Music Association to Bestow Lifetime Achievement Award on Jason & the Scorchers

Band to Reunite for Performance during Ceremony


"Wild-eyed rock-and-roll meets the mythic South in the music of Jason and the Scorchers...one of the great rock bands of the 1980's."
Jon Pareles, New York Times (April 9, 1985)




NASHVILLE, June 9, 2008 - The Americana Music Association is proud to announce pioneers Jason and the Scorchers will receive the prestigious Lifetime Achievement in Performance Award at the annual Americana Honors and Awards show Thursday, September 18 at the Ryman Auditorium. Original Jason and the Scorchers members Jason Ringenberg, Warner Hodges, Jeff Johnson and Perry Baggs will be on hand not only to accept the honor, but to perform together for the first time in more than a decade.



Directly following the awards ceremony, Ringenberg and Hodges will front a band performing a set of Scorchers’ originals at a venue to be announced; more details surrounding the red-letter show will be released soon.



It’s a mantra – a cliché: “To succeed, you have to be first, different or better.” Many pioneers whose music is savored from the moment of conception to generation after generation have fallen under this sing-songy definition of success in one way or another. But Jason and the Scorchers embodied all three prongs of the hypothesis.



They were punk. They were country. They were rock. Perhaps most of all, they were originals. Jason and the Nashville Scorchers, as they were originally called, were messiahs for a 1980’s American rock scene suffering from a slight inferiority complex and aching for pride and grit. Together, frontman Jason Ringenberg, guitarist Warner Hodges, bassist Jeff Johnson and drummer Perry Baggs, personified roots music experimentation, boasting an unparalleled respect for and familiarity with honky tonk, while wielding innate punk savvy. It wasn’t just how they said it: What they were saying also resonated. Ringenberg’s songwriting often drew heady thematic comparisons to Southern Gothic literary giants like Flannery O’Conner or William Faulkner, and Hodges’ influential guitar work roared in response as the punk-rock backbone of their euphoric sound’s dual-personality. The group’s spirited interpretations of traditional country classics by journeymen including Hank Williams were uninhibited celebrations of hillbilly soul.



Their arguably unprecedented mix’s live translation is now legendary: The Scorchers infused the soul of Gram Parsons with the fury of the New York Dolls, shepherded by a lead vocalist who channeled both Faron Young and Iggy Pop. National and subsequent international acclaim arrived on the heels of major label albums and on the strength of live shows, released in conjunction with and steadily guided by early indie hometown believers Praxis. Instead of shying away from their southern roots, Jason and the Scorchers owned them, and quite simply, they made Nashville proud.



It’s often said that art’s impact is most accurately gauged looking backward, after the silt settles to the bottom and some sort of clear context emerges. Jason and the Scorchers’ profound effect on the international music scene and more specifically, what Nashville rock bands felt they could accomplish, was historic, with ramifications still blissfully felt today.



Hosted by Jim Lauderdale and featuring a band led by Buddy Miller, the Honors & Awards ceremony will also toast winners in six member-voted categories: Album, Artist, Instrumentalist, New and Emerging Artist, Song and Duo/Group of the Year. The AMA will also recognize iconic troubadour John Hiatt with the Lifetime Achievement Award in Songwriting.



Slated for Wednesday, September 17 through Saturday, September 20, the 9th Annual Americana Festival and Conference will offer daily seminars, panels and networking opportunities at the Nashville Convention Center. Each evening brings stacked Americana showcases to key venues throughout Nashville.



One ticket to the Americana Honors and Awards is included in each conference registration packet. The general public may also purchase tickets for the ceremony for $45 each. In addition, showcase wristbands granting admission to the Jason and the Scorchers venue show and all other evening showcases on all four nights are also available for $35. To buy tickets, learn more about becoming a member of the Americana Music Association, and access detailed conference information and please visit www.americanamusic.org or call 615-386-6936.

l Media contact: Lisa Shively, Press Network, lisa@pressnetwork.com,

About the Americana Music Association

The Americana Music Association is a professional trade organization whose mission is to provide a forum for the advocacy of Americana music and to promote public awareness of the genre to support the creative and economic viability of professionals in this field. Dedicated to building and promoting the Americana genre and the individuals who participate in that industry, the Americana Music Association works closely with artists, labels, radio stations, retailers, print media, festivals, agents, publishers and more to help organize and build the infrastructure necessary for the Americana genre to achieve success both creatively and financially.


http://www.americanamusic.org

Americana Music Association to Bestow Lifetime Achievement Award on Jason & the Scorchers

Band to Reunite for Performance during Ceremony



"Wild-eyed rock-and-roll meets the mythic South in the music of Jason and the Scorchers...one of the great rock bands of the 1980's."
Jon Pareles, New York Times (April 9, 1985)



NASHVILLE, June 9, 2008 - The Americana Music Association is proud to announce pioneers Jason and the Scorchers will receive the prestigious Lifetime Achievement in Performance Award at the annual Americana Honors and Awards show Thursday, September 18 at the Ryman Auditorium. Original Jason and the Scorchers members Jason Ringenberg, Warner Hodges, Jeff Johnson and Perry Baggs will be on hand not only to accept the honor, but to perform together for the first time in more than a decade.



Directly following the awards ceremony, Ringenberg and Hodges will front a band performing a set of Scorchers’ originals at a venue to be announced; more details surrounding the red-letter show will be released soon.



It’s a mantra – a cliché: “To succeed, you have to be first, different or better.” Many pioneers whose music is savored from the moment of conception to generation after generation have fallen under this sing-songy definition of success in one way or another. But Jason and the Scorchers embodied all three prongs of the hypothesis.



They were punk. They were country. They were rock. Perhaps most of all, they were originals. Jason and the Nashville Scorchers, as they were originally called, were messiahs for a 1980’s American rock scene suffering from a slight inferiority complex and aching for pride and grit. Together, frontman Jason Ringenberg, guitarist Warner Hodges, bassist Jeff Johnson and drummer Perry Baggs, personified roots music experimentation, boasting an unparalleled respect for and familiarity with honky tonk, while wielding innate punk savvy. It wasn’t just how they said it: What they were saying also resonated. Ringenberg’s songwriting often drew heady thematic comparisons to Southern Gothic literary giants like Flannery O’Conner or William Faulkner, and Hodges’ influential guitar work roared in response as the punk-rock backbone of their euphoric sound’s dual-personality. The group’s spirited interpretations of traditional country classics by journeymen including Hank Williams were uninhibited celebrations of hillbilly soul.



Their arguably unprecedented mix’s live translation is now legendary: The Scorchers infused the soul of Gram Parsons with the fury of the New York Dolls, shepherded by a lead vocalist who channeled both Faron Young and Iggy Pop. National and subsequent international acclaim arrived on the heels of major label albums and on the strength of live shows, released in conjunction with and steadily guided by early indie hometown believers Praxis. Instead of shying away from their southern roots, Jason and the Scorchers owned them, and quite simply, they made Nashville proud.



It’s often said that art’s impact is most accurately gauged looking backward, after the silt settles to the bottom and some sort of clear context emerges. Jason and the Scorchers’ profound effect on the international music scene and more specifically, what Nashville rock bands felt they could accomplish, was historic, with ramifications still blissfully felt today.



Hosted by Jim Lauderdale and featuring a band led by Buddy Miller, the Honors & Awards ceremony will also toast winners in six member-voted categories: Album, Artist, Instrumentalist, New and Emerging Artist, Song and Duo/Group of the Year. The AMA will also recognize iconic troubadour John Hiatt with the Lifetime Achievement Award in Songwriting.



Slated for Wednesday, September 17 through Saturday, September 20, the 9th Annual Americana Festival and Conference will offer daily seminars, panels and networking opportunities at the Nashville Convention Center. Each evening brings stacked Americana showcases to key venues throughout Nashville.



One ticket to the Americana Honors and Awards is included in each conference registration packet. The general public may also purchase tickets for the ceremony for $45 each. In addition, showcase wristbands granting admission to the Jason and the Scorchers venue show and all other evening showcases on all four nights are also available for $35. To buy tickets, learn more about becoming a member of the Americana Music Association, and access detailed conference information and please visit www.americanamusic.org or call 615-386-6936.