Jason Ringenberg is coming back to Lincoln next week. So is Farmer Jason.
“I’m going to be doing the dual identity thing,” Ringenberg said. “The first night at the Zoo Bar, I’m doing the solo Jason show. The second is Farmer Jason at the Lincoln Children’s Museum. Some folks have made the observation that I’m schizophrenic. But I don’t go that direction.”
Wednesday's show at the Zoo Bar, a homecoming of sorts for Ringenberg whose Jason and the Scorchers were one of the top draws at the Drumstick starting in 1982.
“I just loved the Lincoln shows in the ‘80s,” he said. “We had some fantastic experiences there. It was a wonderful bunch of people. Hopefully some of those people are still around and will come out to the Zoo.”
The Scorchers, who were rightfully awarded the Americana Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award for performance, get together for special events -- playing PBS' "Bluegrass Underground" filmed in a Tennessee cave, touring Europe and for an occasional important U.S. date.
People are also reading…
“We do things for fun now,” Ringenberg said. “We don’t chase it anymore. We let things comes to us. Two years ago, we played two shows at the Kennedy Center with a dance group. We just do things like that.”
Bringing a band along for a one-off show isn’t practical, and putting together an old-style tour doesn’t really work for a veteran like Ringenberg, either.
“It seems like it’s a lot harder to figure it out these days,” he said. “You can’t go out and play for a two-buck cover and make it work, sleep on floors, drive an old van. Our first show at the Drumstick, we played for $2.”
So he’s playing alone, choosing songs from his five solo albums and the dozen or so releases by Jason and the Scorchers that date back to 1982.
“Certainly, I do some of the Scorchers stuff, that’s what got me out in the world,” Ringenberg said “I do pretty good versions. I do ‘Broken Whiskey Glass,’ a lot of the songs people want to hear. Lincoln was one of the first cities where we established ourselves. So I’ll be doing lots of Scorchers stuff there.”
On Thursday, Ringenberg will appear at the Lincoln Children's Museum as his alter ego, Farmer Jason, as part of the museum's Music and Mozzarella series
Ringenberg’s been doing his Farmer Jason shows since he created the character in 2002 to teach kids about nature and farming while entertaining.
“It didn’t take long for me to see there was something special," he said. "Early on, I could see a bond between me and the kids. I decided to pursue it.”
He now does a couple hundred shows a year as Farmer Jason, often three or four a day at schools, libraries and such. He’s produced four records and a DVD and starred in a video series that’s run on PBS. He's become a big draw on the children’s entertainment circuit.
You can tell he’s Farmer Jason, who’s played Lincoln a few times, just by looking.
“I’m in overalls and a straw hat,” he said. “I basically dress like I do when I’m home working on the farm. The kids often dress up the same way. It’s easy for them to find overalls. And I wear red Converses and sometimes they’ll show up wearing them. It’s really fun.
“I’m a real farmer actually,” he said. “I have a small farm, a hobby farm outside Nashville. Believe it or not, I farm the old Illinois farm as well. This year, we’re raising soybeans. I’m the third generation to farm that farm.”
Being a working farmer is one of the things that brings Jason of Jason and the Scorchers and Farmer Jason together.
“The only people you’ll hear bellyache more about money than musicians are farmers and I’m both of them,” he said. “The only business more risky than music is farming and I’m in both of them."