Jason and the Scorchers – Lost Highway

I truly love this band. They filled a space in the 80s for me. Loud unprocessed guitars with sparse production. They were close to the Georgia Satellites but more of a Rockabilly band on steroids. I was talking to fellow blogger Obbverse and he brought them up and I was very surprised he knew them. Not many outside the Southeast of America know much about them.

In the mid-eighties, I had a friend who was big into Jason and the Scorchers so I gave them a listen. They were big on college radio and they had many ties with Nashville and played here quite often. I saw them and Webb Wilder live downtown once. That is when I heard them do “The Race Is On”…the old George Jones song and it won me over. Their music seemed to have a kinship to the Georgia Satellites but they were a little more robust. They did have some MTV play with the song Golden Ball and Chain.

The band was formed in 1981. They were together through the 80s till the drummer Perry Baggs was diagnosed with diabetes and could not finish a 1990 tour. They have regrouped since then off and on and altogether have released 15 albums with the last one being in 2010. In 2012 Perry Baggs passed away because of diabetes.

They played a mixture between country and rock but fell into the cracks. They seemed too rock for country and too country for rock. Their concerts were simply unbeatable. They were led by frontman Jason Ringenberg and they released a couple of EPs before releasing their debut album Lost & Found in 1985. They were classified at one time as alt-country but I would add rock/punk/rockabilly in there also.

One of the things that made the band different is Jason wanted to sound country but guitar player Warner Hodges wanted to sound like AC/DC…that interplay made them unique. This song was on their 1985 album Lost and Found. The album peaked at #86 on the Australian album chart in 1987.

Most people will know the song Lost Highway…a hit by Hank Williams. It’s surprising but Hank didn’t write this song. Leon Payne wrote and released this song in 1948. Blind since he was a child, Payne wrote hundreds of songs, some of which were recorded by  Hank Williams, John Prine, Elvis Presley, George Jones, Johnny Cash, and many more.

I also added another live cover they did as a bonus…the old George Jones hit The Race Is On. 

Jason Ringenberg: “I kinda wanted to make a supercharged roots-rock band, some people were caught by surprise, but by and large people fell in love immediately. There was nobody else like us.”

Lost Highway

I’m a rollin’ stone, all alone and lost
For a life of sin I have paid the cost
When I pass by all the people say
Just another guy on the lost highway

Just a deck of cards, and a jug of wine
And a woman’s lies makes a life like mine
Oh, the day we met, I went astray
I started rollin’ down that lost highway

I was just a lad, nearly twenty-two
Neither good nor bad, just a kid like you
And now I’m lost, too late to pray
Lord, I’ve paid the cost on the lost highway

Now, boys, don’t start your ramblin’ around
On this road of sin, or you’re sorrow bound
Take my advice, or you’ll curse the day
You started rollin’ down that lost highway

…

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

43 thoughts on “Jason and the Scorchers – Lost Highway”

  1. I know of them but not much about them so it was interesting to learn. They seem to be a lot of fun, kinda remind me of George Thorogood as well you mentioned Georgia Satellites, who I think recorded The Race is On. Of course nobody does it like GJ.

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    1. They were a lot of fun live… after hearing The Race Is On in their style…we learned Jambalaya and Delta Dawn and did the same thing to…it worked.

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  2. Satellite’s on roids? Must check them out now as I have heard the name for a very long time. They should have a done a tour with Baird and the boys back in the day….

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    1. Oh…just the man who would appreciate this… I saw a live video with Baird with them on stage recently.

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  4. I wasn’t aware of them but they sure as heck sound fun. The Scorchers also sounds like an appropriate name. Apple Music calls them cow punk. I see they’ve done many covers, including a pretty good version of “Route 66”. Whoever does that tune well already scores many points in my book!

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      2. Oh yes!!! I forgot about that. They had some good orginals also.
        Them and Webb Wilder ruled Nashville’s rock scene for a while back in the 80s.

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  5. Yet another one I heard mentioned a lot in the 80s and maybe 90s but seldom heard played. Hard to pin them down, from what I can tell but fun, energetic music whatever it is.

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    1. More people have remembered them this time…I’m glad. When I saw them live…they were one of the most aggressive bands I’ve ever seen…them and The Kinks.

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  6. Im with you on these guys Max. I was all over this hybrid back then (I still am). There were a few bands in this vein but Jason and the boys had their own style. I was just listening to them a while ago. Saw them on Bluegrass Underground a few years ago and was impressed on how they still were vibrant and doing their thing. No one has more energy than Jason as a front man. Good pick fella.

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    1. I’m glad I caught these guys live CB…I believe it was the Exit Inn in Nashville. They didn’t play around but came straight at you. Them and Webb Wilder owned Nashville in the 80s…locally.

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      1. A music regret was not catching these guys live. Being a drunken fool I missed a few good ones.
        Two kinds of dancing I dig. The hippy girl spin dance at the outdoor festivals and the Jason “Billy from the hills” just letting it fly. No lessons required.

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      2. Oh the “hippy twirl” that was at a lot of Grateful Dead concerts. I know the one you are talking about.
        The Scorchers were like a countrified Ramones with solos but they also had some good mid tempo songs.

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      1. Yes they are!
        Today it seems like a lot of people heard of them. I posted one a couple of years ago. I’m going to pick out another Webb Wilder song.

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  9. Yeah, they did a few stonking covers as well as their own stuff, ’19th Nervous Breakdown’ ‘Absolutely Sweet Marie’ but I also love some of the more restrained songs like ‘Pray For Me Mama’ and ‘Still Tied.’ And I forgot the outstanding one that first caught/ripped my ear off, ‘Change The Tune.’

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      1. You’re welcome. I hear you. I had to get out and plant as many of those tomatoes as I could. Gave 10 of the original 40 away and all told still have 7 left in small pots. That’s a lot of tomato plants. Had to do a bunch of watering today also it is getting dry again. Also picked my first ripe strawberry. Tasted delicious!

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      2. Wow… that is a lot of tomatoes! Jen has some but not nearly that many.
        Oh I love strawberries…nothing like a fresh ripe one.

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      3. I had a watershed moment on the tomatoes after this experience, when every seed sprouted. Next year I will plant a few seeds from the packet (if I don’t gather some this year, which I will try to do) and donate the rest to the seed bank. I did that with the zucchini and the sunflowers. The drought though I think took the sunflowers (or chipmunks or squirrels got them) as only a few have sprouted 😦

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      4. Jen couldn’t believe you had that many come up…hers has not all developed this year.
        I need to check on the pepper plants that come up every year….and see if they are up.

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      5. I started them inside on heat pads under and grow lights over in closed trays which does the trick. Cool that you have pepper plants that come up every year. I got just 5 seeds from seed bank and every one sprouted. They are almost ready to blossom 🙂

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  11. I vaguely remember Golden Ball & Chain and, I have heard of Jason & the Scorchers. They’ve been around a while. The music is AC/DC-Cow Punk fusion. It also popped in my head that this is Hank Williams, Jr., backed by Black Sabbath…or, even Judas Priest. I hear some overlap.

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      3. Eh. Bocephus ain’t bad. He had as hard a life as his daddy. I wouldn’t want to fall off a mountain, rip off half of my face, fracture my skull or spend two years, trying to learn to walk, talk & sing, again.

        He’s right up there with Charlie Daniels & Waylon Jennings.

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      5. Good comparison…yes, along with Dylan. I can count on one hand how many Young/CSNY/Dylan songs I like. There are a few, tho…

        Changing the subject, I found another one you will like…(major Beatles fan)…
        https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/104483398

        As best as I can tell, he is a Brit and started blogging in March 2020, when all the lockdowns started.

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