Epiphone Catches Up With Farmer Jason
October 27, 2006

When internationally acclaimed singer-songwriter Jason Ringenberg created his children's music character Farmer Jason in 2003, he had no idea he was launching what would prove to be the most commercially successful creation of his storied career. With Jason and the Scorchers, he pioneered the fusion of punk rock and country that turned the music world on its ear in the mid-1980s. Their first record, Lost and Found, still shows up on critics "best of the 1980s" lists, and there is an exhibit of them in the Country Music Hall of Fame. When Jason went solo in 1999, the London Times called him "one of the most dynamic live performers of his generation." Jason could rest easily, assured that his place in rock'n'roll history was secure.

However, with two sweet, beautiful, preschool daughters missing Daddy Jason during his 200 dates a year touring schedule, Jason wanted to make a CD that his kids could listen to while he was out globetrotting. Since they lived on a small farm near Bon Aqua, Tennessee, and Jason grew up on an Illinois hog farm, he reckoned that a roots oriented CD about farming and farm animals was just the ticket. Hence the first Farmer Jason CD, A Day at the Farm with Farmer Jason, was born. He released it "purely for fun" in the fall of 2003, delighted to hear his daughters singing along to songs like The Tractor Goes Chug Chug Chug and A Guitar Pickin' Chicken. That was the peak of his ambition for it.

To his surprise, soon lots of other daughters and little sons were singing along as well. Disney's magazine Family Fun called it one of the "Top 5 kids CDs of 2003." Farmer Jason, Jason Ringenberg's "twin brother" (wink wink), was soon drawing sell-out crowds from Osh Kosh to Oslo doing children's concerts in venues ranging from schools and libraries to punk rock clubs. No Depression said of his show: "Sounding as excited as a Captain Crunched 6-year old on Saturday morning, Farmer Jason dares you not to sing along. Resistance is utterly futile." In Spain, the CD became a hit among Spanish Harley riders! Interestingly, some of his best shows have been in big inner cities like East London and central Atlanta, proving that Farmer Jason is not just for sons and daughters of CMT watchers. Epiphone recently caught up with Jason on a short break from the road at his home in Tennessee.

EPI: Most of our site visitors will probably remember you from Jason and the Scorchers but Farmer Jason has taken you in a different direction of late.

JASON: Yes it has. A few years ago I created the Farmer Jason character, really just for fun but I ended up making a record and it's just taken off. Farmer Jason now has a record deal with Warner Brothers, Rhino and a TV development deal with a company called Lions Gate.

EPI: And this character was inspired by your own children?

JASON: Yes. The first Farmer Jason record I did was for them. They were really young at the time and I wanted them to have a record of mine that they could get into. It sort of grew from there organically to where it is today.

EPI: When and why did you first start playing guitar?

JASON: One of my older sisters was sort of a sixties-child, hippie-girl and she was into Bob Dylan, Neil Young and people like that so she sort of brought that around and it got me interested. I started actually playing in Junior High and took some lessons but I didn't get really serious about it until I was probably sixteen or seventeen.

EPI: Did playing guitar help progress you into becoming a songwriter?

JASON: Not really because I had kind of always written songs. I can remember when I was five years old, I wrote a song called "Summer on the Farm" so I guess writing has always been a part of me but playing guitar certainly helped develop that.

EPI: Was Jason and the Scorchers your first band?

JASON: I played in bands in my late teens and twenties but Jason and the Scorchers was the first band I was in that had any impact.

EPI: That band certainly did make an impact with your critically acclaimed work. Was it odd for you guys to be lumped into the "Country" market with your punk rock influences?

JASON: I don't think we ever did really fit in with the country market. They were using it as sort of the foundation of our musical house but we never had any pretense that we would walk down Music Row in Nashville and get a recording contract. We ended up bypassing that whole scene here and went to Los Angeles for a deal with Capitol and to New York with our agencies. It was pretty funny because we were playing punk rock clubs. We had an old Ford Econoline, played everywhere we could for three bucks a night and were sleeping on peoples floors.

EPI: Tell me about your Epiphones.

JASON: I have an Epiphone EJ-200CE that sounds great. It's a wonderful, big, rich, deep sort of sound. I don't have a lot of good technique so it's important that I get a good sound from the start. I also have an Epiphone AJ-200SCE and that thing is just a monster. It's a wonderful sounding guitar and tough as nails. I'm really hard on guitars since I travel all the time. I do 200 shows a year and fly everywhere and that Epiphone beast gets thrown under the hull of the plane all the time. I pull it out and it plays great every time and has never let me down. It really is amazing what Epi is doing these days and the Masterbilt series is just remarkable.

EPI: I understand you are going to have your own customized Masterbilt AJ-500R soon.

JASON: Yeah, it's going to be really cool. It has a Farmer Jason pickguard and its going to be awesome. I can't wait to get it.

EPI: What are your immediate plans?

JASON: Well, the new record, "Rockin' In The Forest" is now out and I'm currently doing the Jamarama Live Tour which is sort of a kids Lollapalooza kind of thing. It's sponsored by My Gym and features Nick Jr. television stars and festival activities. We're taking that to theatres now through early December.

EPI: Thanks Jason and we look forward to seeing you on the Jamarama Live Tour with those Epi's!