Jason & The Scorchers - Halcyon Times

Back to barroom basics

Midway through Moonshine Guy, the opening track on The Scorchers’ first album of all-new material in 14 years, the music stops abruptly to allow a three-second blast of Hot Nights In Georgia to seep into the mix. This brief reappearance of a song from the band’s 1985 debut Fervour appears to be telling the listener, “We’re back, and we’re just as you remember us.”

Jason Ringenberg and trusty lieutenant Warren Hodges haven’t been idle during their time apart, the leader carving out a parallel career for himself as a children’s entertainer under the name Farmer Jason, but it’s a joy to find them slipping back into their default setting as bourbon-swigging guitar slingers with such ease. There’s little in the way of surprises here; the redneck rockers (Gettin’ Nowhere Fast, Fear Not Gear Rot) still shred the speakers, the gentler country strummers (Twang Town Blues, Beat On The Mountain) still glide across the prairie.

Amid all the boot-stomping and hollering at the moon you’ll find some sharp observational lyrics, Ringenberg evoking the spirit of John Steinbeck or Cormac McCarthy, while not once taking a breather from kicking up a saloon floor sawdust storm.

3 stars 3 stars 3 stars

Jerkin’ Crocus | JERK 24

Reviewed by Terry Staunton
<< Back to Issue 373

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