Empire Builders

Playback, St Louis
Currents of profound unrest are once more galvanizing this land, and Jason Ringenberg, with nonpareil timing, has just arrived with a top-of-the-line voltameter entitled Empire Builders.

Its political content notwithstanding, the 11-track CD (the fourth solo effort from the king of the cowpunks) scarcely signals his departure from alt-country for polemics—he may be crazy but he ain’t no fool. No, the new Yep Roc disc still boasts Ringenberg’s gonzo twang and often impish arrangements and ranges from ballads to rockers, among them Merle Haggard’s “Rainbow Stew,” the first of two covers here; “Link Wray,” a blazing paean to that rumblin’, ramblin’, rawhide-tough guitarist; and “Half the Man,” a tribute to Ringenberg’s father.

That said, righteous anger slices like a straight razor through the majority of these songs. Abiding socioeconomic concerns inform “Chief Joseph’s Last Dream,” “New-Fashioned Imperialist,” and “Tuskegee Pride.” On seeing the Stars and Bars topping a barn overseas, meanwhile, Ringenberg, in “Rebel Flag in Germany,” drawls, “Hell I don’t even want to see that flag in Tennessee.” Otherwise, book-ending Empire Builders are “American Question” and the spoken-word “American Reprieve,” two scathing gems of musical protest. “Yes we can bomb most any land/On CNN with marching bands,” Ringenberg intones on the latter over a beatnik vibe. “Pour ourselves an ice cold Coke/Make a war and tell a joke.” The disc, in short, will likely incense those who see introspection as irresolution, dissent as sedition, protest as treason.

Their loss. Not merely a stunning new release by an Americana artist, Ringenberg’s Empire Builders ranks as a stunning new release by an American artist. In these increasingly troubled and troubling times, one can only hope a significant number of other Americans pay heed to the message in his new music.

BH