Midnight Roads & Stages Seen is the first live album from Jason & The Scorchers in a career spanning some 16 plus years. On the heels of their critically acclaimed album, 1996's "Clear Impetuous Morning" which was awarded Best Rock Album by Leadership Music's Nashville Music Awards earlier this year, this live album displays the band energized and asserting their title as the founders of cowpunk. It's about time.
Experiencing the band members live is a visual treat: Frontman Jason Ringenberg, displaying his whirling dervish athletics and country boy charm; Warner Hodges, sarcastically gleeful, chain-smoking guitar virtuoso and master stylist; Perry Baggs, warp-speed precision drummer and occasional guitarist with his seemingly carefree, bad-boy ryeness; Kenny Ames (replacing Jeff Johnson), formidable bassist with an energy level equaling Ringenberg's, these four know how to connect with their audience and give some of the finest shows I've ever seen or am likely to witness.
With their frenetic brand of country/rock, Jason & The Scorchers have had a bit of a rough go in acceptance among the radio communities of country as well as rock. They have been largely misunderstood and dismissed by the Nashville powers-that-be and labeled too country for rock radio. Yet, they continue to crank out hyper-kinetic crowd-pleasing melodies complete with Ringenberg's lyrical melding of wayward cowboy meets moral redemption themes resulting in some of the best hard-driving countrified rock ever recorded.
Midnight Roads & Stages Seen offers up a two-CD set consisting of 23 of their best and most requested concert favorites. Golden Ball & Chain, a down the line rocker is introduced by Jason's prose signaling the band's appreciation for their fans; Absolutely Sweet Marie with its clever arrangement, is a wild and reckless sendup of Bob Dylan's original; the frenzied Both Sides Of The Line, complete with Hodges lightening-speed intro and bridge is reminiscent of the guitar line running through those early James Bond films. With the added whip fast drumming from Perry, the hectic tempo slowly quiets to a haunting stir for a spoken verse by Jason and with one second of complete silence, the band pounces dead-on into a final fury of electric mayhem. What may be something of a signature song, Broken Whiskey Glass highlights the bands creative flair by taking what could be just your average drinkin' song, stirring in some honky tonk piano (courtesy of Jerry Dale McFadden) and then churning the mix to a guitar blazing, high octane finish. McFadden also contributes his keyboard wizardry on the classic, Walkin' The Dog which showcases the powerful chops of Warner's mother, Blanche Hodges, who is a noteworthy country singer in her own right.
Other selections of particular mention would be Help There's A Fire, an uptempo rocker with Jason parodying (perhaps unintentionally) the excited, clipped spoken word vocals of a David Byrne. On the cooler side of fire, they offer up the group penned ballad, Somewhere Within with its philosophical introspection and beautiful acoustic guitar by Perry which calls forth the memory of the guitar solo on Led Zeppelin's Stairway To Heaven. Another ballad, the folk-tinged Ocean of Doubt showcases the fiddle talents of BR5-49's Don Herron. Rounding out the album are some full-tilt country rockers, Self Sabotage, My Heart Still Stands With You, 200 Proof Lovin' and the mid-tempo story a of troubled but hopeful young girl, Goin' Nowhere. The album aptly sums up the band's almost two decade long journey by returning to their country roots on the last cut with the traditionally flavored Still Tied. Produced by Warner Hodges, the album includes some in-between song Jason-speak with his good-natured self-mockery and genuine appreciation of the audience, his bandmates and those close to the Scorchers. One of the best live albums I've ever heard which captures the heart and spirit of a band, I submit to you Jason's own words, "It don't get much better than this". Indeed.
As good as this album is, and it's great, to fully realise and experience the majesty of J&TS, you have to see them live. The video captures the madness. It's as close as you can get without actually having to check into detox the next day.
-Tera Skowronski