Jason Ringenberg Empire Builders Review 3y3954

Jason Ringenberg is probably best known for his mid-eighties work with cowpunk tearaways Jason & The Scorchers, who were pioneers of rocking alt.country before the term was coined. The band split in 1985 but reformed in the mid-nineties, after which Ringenburg embarked on a solo career. If working with Steve Earle on his previous release All Over Creation didn't make his politics clear, then this one leaves fans in no doubt.

Empire Builders is largely a scathing state-of-the-nation address, much of which he wrote on the road in Europe and Australia, where his southern twang and cowboy hat attracted a lot of negative attention in public. Ringenberg's response to that experience is an album sprinkled with protest songs lamenting the excesses of American imperialism, war mongering and consumerism. With lines like 'I sink down in my seat and I search for a disguise/ I say "I am Canadian" with averted eyes', the stomping bombast of "Rebel Flag In " neatly sums up the disgust and sense of collective shame many left-wing Americans feel these days.

"New Fashioned Imperialist", "American Question" and "American Reprieve" are the other most overtly political songs, but thankfully, it's not all hand wringing, and clearly the man has a sense of humour. The self explanatory "Link Wray" is a suitably rock 'n' roll flavoured salute to the '50s guitar hero. And there's also room for the personal as well as the political on songs like "She Hung The Moon" and "Half The Man", which is dedicated to his father.

Though Ringenberg's storytelling songs are often impressive, the album's finest moment is the elegiac "Eddie Rode The Orphan Train", by Jim Roll, who also co-wrote "American Question". The styles range from country shuffles through polka and rocking country to the jazzy ruminations of the closing "American Reprieve". Equally as varied, the arrangements include banjo, accordion, cello, keyboards and even brass in places; special mention should go to multi-instrumentalist George Bradfute and Fats Kaplin on fiddle and steel guitar. Ringenberg himself isn't exactly the most compelling singer of his generation, but it's good to see him carrying the 'protest singer' torch lit by the likes of Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. What seems like quite a slight album at first turns out to be bit of a slow grower.