Disappointingly, Jason Ringenberg was without a band but he was a bundle of energy , a permanent beam lighting up his face while he  bopped frenetically to the music.  Armed with only an acoustic guitar, he kicked off with Honky Tonk Maniac from Mars, humming an imaginary steel guitar solo.

Jason wore a gaudy gold shirt, glittery blue cowboy hat and very worn cowboy boots – always a puzzle to me since surely they’re only worn on stage.   You can’t always sound good but you can always look good he told us tongue in chic.

Rebel flag in Germany gave pause for thought – it concerns how the Confederate flag is used by Nazis in Germany because swastikas are banned.  The song finishes “ Hell, I don’t even want to see that flag in Tennessee”.   Harvest moon , from legendary 1983 EP Fervor, one of several Jason and the Scorchers songs went down well – he was happy to play requests. He is still nominally in the groundbreaking Americana band but has been  a solo artist for the last few years.  

He’s had a busy tour of the British  Isles – 22 gigs in 20 days he reckoned. The tally is so high thanks to alter ego Farmer Jason.  Jason does afternoon childrens shows presenting  “a day at the farm with Farmer Jason”!  He was raised in Sheffield, Illinois on a hog farm of course and now lives on a farm between Nashville and Memphis.  T- shirts for sale are labelled Hello little farmhands!  Jason sang two of his kids songs for us adults -  I’m a guitar pickin chicken and the tractor goes chug chug chug.  

Bible and a gun  - written with Steve Earle, had a funny anecdote. Earle insisted Jason pronounce Missouri as “Missourah”. Absolutely Sweet Marie predictably went down well -  Where are you tonight sweet Marie? goes the chorus as he danced and twirled energetically. As he said, it’s the most well known Jason and Scorchers song in UK.

Jason is quite a folkie when he gets the chance.  At school he admired  Phil Ochs  while his friends listened to Aerosmith.

Eddie rode the orphan train  –  a very sad story song by Jim Roll followed, from  Jason’s new CD Empire Builders .  A Merle Haggard cover, Rainbow stew was performed with yet more frenetic bopping – no wonder his boots are worn out!

Tuskegee Pride came next - African American airmen  in World War Two who never lost a plane. Eleanor Roosevelt  persuaded her husband to form the squadron at Tuskegee, Alanbama. Three hundred and fifty airmen were trained together with support crew . “We were lords of the air in northern Italy”.

New Fashioned Imperialist, accompanied by a cajun marching band on record gave rise to another impressive humming interlude so we could imagine what its supposed to sound like.  A terrific Townes Van Zandt song , seemingly the godfather of Americana followed. No Deal included an extra verse about George W Bush which provoked laughter.  

The evening concluded with a bizarre cover of the Carpenters’ Top of the World with rewritten lyrics about Wal-Mart, who represent all that’s bad about America according to Jason. 

Support was the bearded Ethan Daniel Davidson from Alaska who told us he’s given away 45,000 CD’s over five years but now charges five dollars (actually five pounds) for them. No less than six were on sale at the gig. 

All in all, another top class great value evening at the Maidstone Soul Café.