Jason Ringenberg

While Gram Parsons may have the distinction of being the grandaddy of the ill-named "alt country" genre, Illinois farm boy Jason Ringenberg is certainly the man who brought the music -- before the phrase was coined -- to the stages of the world with a vengeance. Born in 1959 and raised on a pig farm in southern Illinois, Ringenberg moved to Nashville in 1981 to try his luck as a songwriter. He formed an acoustic country/punk band with drummer Jack Emerson called Jason & the Scorchers and released one EP in 1982 on the defunct Praxis label called Reckless Country Soul. With add...