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All Over Creation Nashville Scene June 6 - 12, 2002 On vacation from The Scorchers, Jason Ringenberg enlists a sampler-pack of acts from Nashville and beyond to back him on All Over Creation (YepRoc). Each track presents a new collaboration, from no-brainer match-ups with Steve Earle, Tommy Womack, Paul Burch and BR549 to more surprising excursions with Swan Dive and Lambchop. Initially, the rotating personnel doesn't seem to have much impact - Ringenberg's enthusiastic yelping tends to flatten out the songs into one long cowpunk throwback, less scorching than The Scorchers but still endearing. Repeated spins reveal greater distinctions between, say, the swanky horn-draped setting of the Todd Snider collaboration "James Dean's Car" and the two springy bluegrass tracks with Kristi Rose and Fats Kaplin (one of which is an ethereal cover of the Gun Club classic "Mother of Earth"). Given time to sink in, the 12 cuts of All Over Creation comprise 12 aspects of Ringenberg's deep affection for the diversity of popular music, which he conveys with his usual charm. Noel Murray