frame|right|EMI's 1983 reissue of Jason & the Scorchers' ''Fervor'' EP
{{Infobox musical artist
| Name                = Jason & The Scorchers
| Background          = group_or_band
| Origin              = Nashville, Tennessee, USA
| Genre               = Rock, Punk, Country, Cowpunk
| Years_active        = 1981-2007
| Label               = Praxis (1981-1983)<br/>EMI (1983-1987)<br/>Mammoth Records (1997-1999)<br/>Courageous Chicken Records
| Associated_acts     = Farmer Jason<br/>Ginger and The Scorchers<br/>The Wildhearts<br/>Dan Baird & Homemade Sin
| URL                 = http://jasonandthescorchers.com/
| Current_members     = Jason Ringenberg<br/>Warner E. Hodges<br/>Kenny Ames<br/>Perry Baggs
| Past_members        = Jeff Johnson<br/>Andy York<br/>Ken Fox<br/>
}}

'''Jason & The Scorchers''' were a Rock / Country rock band formed in 1981 and led by singer/songwriter Jason Ringenberg.

With a sound that straddled hard rock, punk rock and country music, Jason and the Scorchers are noted for their energetic live performances, and earned strong reviews from critics: Mark Deming, who declared they "blazed a trail for the cowpunk and alt-country movements that followed in their wake."[http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:fxfoxql5ldse] 

However, their mainstream success was limited, and Jason and the Scorchers disbanded in about 1990 before reforming since.
==History==
===Early Days===
A native of Illinois, Ringenberg founded the group in 1981, and they soon established a strong reputation among indie-rock circles. 

Eagles.

However, all of those efforts pre-dated the raw sound of '70s punk and '80s alternative rock, and by the '80s, most country resembled mainstream pop, making Jason and the Scorchers something a novelty in their hometown, Nashville, Tennessee, as their ragged, high-energy music was somewhat unprecedented.  This made The Scorchers a natural for eclectic venues such as Nashville's EXIT/IN.

Rock critic Jimmy Guterman reports that in late 1983, during a concert held "in the basement of a now-boarded Philadelphia dive...Jason Ringenberg balanced himself on a rickety stool...and wished aloud what he wanted his band to sound like. 'Like a religious service,' he said wistfully, 'only a lot dirtier.'"

According to the band's website, the Scorchers worked out "on stage what they had in their heads and hearts from their teenage years: roots in country, hearts in rock, minds more or less in the gutter. All the members of the band grew up around country music, but they were interested in rock as well. The way [guitarist] Warner E. Hodges told it, his father (who was a traveling USO musician) heard Warner's bands thrashing through Kiss-type songs and suggested that if they played Merle Haggard or Johnny Cash, it would sound great. So perhaps it was one part their own doing, one part Edgar Hodges', and one part divine inspiration."

As Guterman would later report, "onstage, the early Scorchers...eschew[ed] all subtlety. [Drummer] Perry Baggs concentrated on destroying his snare with style, and [bassist] Jeff Johnson stood intent and rail-straight, an ideal foil for the two wild men up front...Guitarist Warner Hodges slid from delicate lap steel to Keith Richards-style guitar heroics without making one seem like a departure from the other. Whether he stood at the lip of the stage, leaning over the audience, sucking a cigarette, or he spun himself into speedy circles that would have made any mere mortal dizzy, Hodges personified the country boy too thrilled to be rocking to care how ridiculous he looked. The same went for Ringenberg. His own dancing during the rocking numbers suggested (''The Honeymooners''') Ed Norton on methamphetamines, but when he strapped on his acoustic guitar and stood center stage, no one could argue that he wasn't haunted by the ghosts of Hank [Williams] and Lefty [Frizzell]."

===Debut EP===
The Scorchers eventually released their debut, D.I.Y. EP, ''Reckless Country Soul'', in 1982 on the independent Praxis label. Guterman would later write that it "captured the explosive band in its untutored infancy...Across its four terse, hilarious songs - full of rants against British hair bands [on 'Shot Down Again'], analyses of Jerry Falwell's shortcomings as a marriage counselor, and an irreverent homage to Hank Williams - the band was able to erect a sound that approximated nothing so much as Joe Strummer hurling a wrecking ball through the Grand Ole Opry. This was no joke."

===Signing with EMI===
The EP was well-received for an independent release, and when EMI signed the Scorchers in 1983, Producer/Engineer Terry Manning was brought on board, new tracks were recorded, and more copies were soon repressed and repackaged as an expanded record titled ''Fervor''. By now, the Scorchers were fairly popular as a live act, and rock critics from noted publications began to take notice. Robert Christgau praised ''Fervor'' in his "Consumer Guide" column, writing that "crossing Gram Parsons's knowledge of sin with Joe Ely's hellbent determination to get away with it, Jason Ringenberg leads a band no one can accuse of fecklessness, dabbling, revivalism, or undue irony. The lyrics strain against their biblical poetry at times, but anyone who hopes to take a popsicle into a disco is in no immediate danger of expiring of pretentiousness." ''Fervor'' also attracted much attention for its groundbreaking cover of Bob Dylan's "Absolutely Sweet Marie." A song which originally appeared on Dylan's ''Blonde on Blonde'' in 1966, the Scorchers' version did not originally appear on ''Reckless Country Soul'' but, newly recorded by Manning, was added as a bonus track to ''Fervor''.

''Fervor'' earned a great deal of critical praise, placing at #3 on ''The Village Voice'''s Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for 1983, and the Scorchers quickly followed it with two full-length LP's: ''Lost & Found'' produced by Terry Manning, and ''Still Standing'' produced by Tom Werman. Both albums were critically acclaimed (particularly ''Lost & Found'' which placed at #22 on the Pazz & Jop for 1985), but neither achieved any chart success. Pre-dating country music's popular neotraditionalist movement of the late '80s and early '90s, the Scorchers were unable to obtain substantial airplay on either rock radio or country radio, as mainstream rock stations considered them "too country" while mainstream country stations considered them "too rock." In 1987, EMI dropped the Scorchers from its label, and Jeff Johnson left the band.  He was replaced by Ken Fox, who later joined The Fleshtones.

===Third LP and Split-Up===
After a three-year "fallow period," the Scorchers released a third LP, ''Thunder and Fire'', where they steered more towards hard-rock. Reviews were mixed, often negative, and sales were disappointing. "The songs were more metal-influenced," according to the band's website, "as Warner [Hodges] had a big hand in the production. Then Perry Baggs was diagnosed with diabetes during a tour in 1990. Warner called Jason and said he couldn't do it any more. As Warner said it later, 'we didn't break up, we fell apart.'"

After the Scorchers split, Ringenberg turned to country-oriented solo work, Hodges moved to Los Angeles to work in the video business, and Johnson moved to Atlanta while Baggs remained in Nashville.

===Compact Disc Retrospective===
A few years later, EMI Records hired Jimmy Guterman to compile a compact disc retrospective of the Scorchers' music. A single compact disc containing 22 tracks, ''Are You Ready for the Country?: The Essential Jason and the Scorchers, Volume 1'' was issued in the fall of 1992, including all of ''Fervor'', ''Lost and Found'', and four rarities. (Reportedly, plans for a second volume never materialized.) The compilation would fall out-of-print years later, replaced by a shorter compilation that excluded all of the rarities, but it helped introduce the Scorchers to a new generation of listeners who were experiencing a different musical landscape.

===Alt Country Goes Mainstream===
By the mid-1990s, following the unprecedented success of Nirvana, X and the Scorchers. Groups like southern Illinois's Uncle Tupelo and Nashville's the Kentucky Headhunters were now building on the developments made by their predecessors.

===Reunion===
According to the band's website. it was around this time that "Jeff [Johnson] bought a copy of ''Essential Jason and the Scorchers, Volume 1''...He liked it and decided to try to re-unite the band." Johnson contacted Hodges first, who hadn't played guitar in roughly a year. Hodges hung up on Johnson after hearing him suggest a reunion, but Johnson called six more times that same night. Eventually, Johnson tried Ringenberg, calling him at four in the morning "until Jason agreed to do it." Hodges eventually agreed to a reunion as well, "with his rationale being 'Okay, I won't be the bad guy.'" Baggs also agreed to the reunion, and with the original Scorchers together again, the group began touring in 1993. The reunion shows were a critical and commercial success, eventually extending into 1994. A demo tape of new recordings were also made that year, and Ringenberg was able to secure the band to a new contract with Mammoth Records in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The band then released a new album in 1995, titled ''A Blazing Grace'', which returned them to their original sound. The Scorchers then released another new record, ''Clear Impetuous Morning'', in 1996.

{{Info banda
 | nome          = Jason and The Scorchers
 | imagem        = 
 | legenda       = 
 | origem        = Nashville
 | país          = 20px|
 | período       = 1981 - Actualmente
 | gênero        = Country punk, Rock alternativo
 | gravadora     = EMI America, Mammoth, A&M
 | integrantes   = Jason Ringenberg, Warner Hodges, Jeff Johnson, Perry Baggs    
 | site          = http://jasonandthescorchers.com/
}}

Os '''Jason & The Scorchers''' foram uma banda norte-americana de country punk, formada em 1981, em Nashville, por Jason Ringenberg (vocais), Warner Hodges (guitarra), Jeff Johnson (baixo), e Perry Baggs (bateria). 

==História==

Os Jason and The Scorchers surgiram em 1981, com um género musical misto de country e punk. Oriundos de Nashville, foram uma das primeiras bandas de country com um som alternativo. Um dos seus primeiros êxitos, foi uma versão de ''Absolutely Sweet Marie'', de Bob Dylan, incluída no EP de 1983, ''Fervor''.

Em 1985 lançam o primeiro álbum de originais, ''Lost & Found'', seguido de ''Still Standing'', em (1986). Este dois trabalhos reflectem o som country punk, que os caracteriza, lembrando versões mais ''pesadas'' de tems dos Rolling Stones, ou Johnny Cash.

Se por um lado são inovadores no seu estilo musical, por outro lado este mesmo estilo trás-lhes dificuldades comerciais, pois nem as rádios de música rock, nem as de country, passavam as suas músicas. Jason Ringenberg abandona a banda.

Em 1989, Jason junta-se de novo ao grupo, e lançam ''Thunder & Fire'', que se afasta do som country punk, e se revela um insucesso, levando Jason a nova saída da banda, para uma carreira a solo.

Em 1994, dá-se nova reunião dos membros da banda, que dá origem aos trabalhos ''A Blazing Grace'', de (1995), e ''Clear Impetuous Morning'', em (1996). Jeff Johnson deixa a banda em 1997, entrando para o seu lugar Kenny Ames. Ames trás nova energia, e revitaliza o som do grupo. Em 1997, gravam o álbum ao vivo ''Midnight Roads & Stages Seen'', lançado no ano seguinte, que é bem aceite pela crítica, e pelos fãs.

Em 1999, a Walt Disney Records encerra a Mammoth Records, deixando a banda sem editora. Desde essa data, o grupo lançou o álbum ao vivo ''Rock on Germany'', em 2001, através da editora privada de Ringenberg, a Courageous Chicken Records.

==Discografia==

===Álbuns===