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All Over Creation Washington Post June 19, 2002 The Solo Scorcher: Jason on His Own During his year-long solo tour in support of his surprisingly successful folk-rock album, "A Pocketful of Soul," Jason Ringenberg discovered that the honky-tonks of the world were littered with bands and musicians that found his original outfit, Jason & the Scorchers, enduringly inspirational. It says a lot about this Tennessee chicken farmer's humility that he would be unaware of his continuing influence. In the 1980s, well before the term "alternative country" was coined, Jason & the Scorchers were the cowpunk band to beat; their furious 1983 debut release, "Fervor," is a seven-song classic of the genre, one that the likes of Trent Summar and the New Row Mob have clearly studied with monklike intensity. Encouraged by the reception that greeted "A Pocketful of Soul," a mature work that was more Hank Sr. than Hank III, Ringenberg decided to do a disc of collaborations and duets with his new and old friends from the road. The result is "All Over Creation," a wickedly apt title. Ringenberg swerves with abandon from tender acoustic ballads to raucous roots rock, depending on who's in the studio with him at the time. "Bible and a Gun" finally teams its co-writers, Ringenberg and Steve Earle, on a ballad first recorded by the Scorchers in 1989, with a change in the lyrics to a Civil War slant. Ringenberg visits the Civil War again with "Erin's Seed," a vivid imagining of Irish immigrants compelled to square off against each other at Fredericksburg. Country-ironist Lambchop contributes a delicate acoustic melody, and Ringenberg enlisted the help of a historian to get the facts right. "Too High to See," with former Government Cheese frontman Tommy Womack, and "One Less Heartache," with British metal maniacs the Wildhearts, are the kind of sharp-toothed rockers that Ringenberg specializes in: There's a whirl of guitars and rock rhythm behind his precise, prominent vocals as he sings lyrics that address emotional issues beyond the usual tears-in-your-beers material. Two collaborations with Kristi Rose and fiddler and banjo player Fats Kaplin yield disparate gems: "I Dreamed My Baby Came Home," an obscurity from the George Jones canon dressed up in bluegrass duds, and "Mother of Earth," a plain and simple folk song enlivened by Ringenberg's distinctive voice. The frenetic "James Dean's Car," with its killer trumpet riff and harmonizing by the clever Todd Snider, is followed by the touching, lovely "Camille," with Nashville folkies Swan Dive, on a song about Ringenberg's young daughter. For sheer energetic goofiness, the best song is the leadoff number, the revved-up rocker "Honky-Tonk Maniac From Mars" ("He staggered out of the sky on a hot summer Saturday night"), with Hamell on Trial subbing for the Scorchers. For out-of-left-field audacity, the combination of Ringenberg with alt-country heroes BR549 doing a pedal steel-and-fiddle reworking of Loretta Lynn's classic "Don't Come Home a-Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)" ranks up there with Lyle Lovett's version of Tammy Wynette's "Stand by Your Man." For the alt-country fans who have been waiting for a new disc with which to kick off the summer, "All Over Creation" is good news indeed. But the best news is that Jason & the Scorchers are back on the road in July. Buzz McClain