I got an email from the Mayor. And when the Mayor reaches out with something important, you pay attention.
John Surge, frontman of the Haymakers and curator of the Twang City concert series, is also known as the Mayor of Twang City.
He sent me a note a few weeks ago about two concerts he’s hosting featuring two major names in a criminally underapperciated segement of American music. The cowpunk and early alt-country scenes of the 1980s are often overlooked as formative influences on present day Americana, and Surge wants to fix one event at a time. And these shows should go a long way to do just that.
“It is big, and it should be a blast,” he told me during an interview.
The idea for this show was came together when local mega-fan and music patron John Antich, went on the Sirius Outlaw Country Cruise last year. Antich puts on a summer house concert series every year at his home in Souther California, which is always a sell out.
Surge told me that Antich met Jason Ringenberg, a forefather of the cowpunk and alt-country movements, on the cruse and booked him for his house concert.
“He also booked Rosie Flores and the Beat Farmers on the same show! Almost hard to believe. It was his idea to have me and the Haymakers back Jason, so Jason could do a full band performance. We got on board, and then I thought, why not do a couple more shows while we’re at it?”
And now Twang City is promoting a Rosie Flores Jason and The Sorchers, and John Surge & the Haymakers concert at the Wayfarer in Costa Mesa and Permanent Records in Los Angeles before that house concert.
“I do have a love for ‘80s country-inspired rock ’n’ roll, whatever you call it — cowpunk, roots rock, alt-country. And I do think many of these great American bands have been missed by younger generations. So, in a small way, I’m waving the flag for this wonderful decade of music that was really influential but not that commercially successful.”
And this is one hell of a way to do it. Flores is a huge get. Like huge. The National Endowment of the Arts Heritage Award winner will close the night out at the two shows. A pioneer of this music, she’s seen a lot shift and grow over time.
“Americana as a genre is wonderful and has been from the beginning,” Flores said.
“The songs that were being played on the few radio stations that reported to the Gavin chart took a while to get going,” she explained in an email interview. “It was great to find myself with a couple of number one spots on that chart and to see other songwriters and independent label bands, who were out there recording and touring, finally getting recognition.”
“Once it got established, there was no stopping it, and I loved to see how it grew through the years.”
As more well-known artists, like Emmy Lou Harris and Lyle Lovett were labeled as Americana, the tent expanded she explained.
“It became clear that there can be different styles that could be incorporated into what Americana really is: just plain, great music.”
And Ringenberg is one of those genre-expanding artists. As one of the origninal cowpunk acts, he has also seen his influence impact the modern Americana and alt-country space for nearly five decades.
“The Americana scene around the world has grown exponentially during the last 10 years. It has become a big tent genre, with some of its acts doing legitimate arena-level business.”
Many of these artists have started to incorporate bluegrass, jazz, progressive folk and mainstream alternative rock into their sound, he explained. That was something he and his band didn’t do in those days. However, Jason and The Scorchers were among the pioneers that “championed the idea that American roots music could and should have a high-energy rock-n-roll attack at its base.”
“From that angle, I do hear our influence in acts like The Vandoliers, Tyler Childers, Nikki Lane, Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell and Margo Price. I am proud of that.”
The cowpunk scene served as a sort of revolt against the machine of Nashville, much like the the Bakersfield Sound did decades earlier, and much of this revolt has been incorporated into what could be called “real country music” today, or at least what folk argue about as real country music.
“All of the cowpunk artists of the early 1980s felt some level of disdain and rebellion towards the Nashville commercial machine embodied at the time by artists like Lee Greenwood and Barbara Mandrell,” said Ringenberg “Given that we were actually based in Nashville itself, we felt that sense of rebellion very deeply. We dealt with it every day.”
However, unlike the greats of the Bakersfield era, the cowpunks and alt-country players have not shifted from iconoclasts to icons. But that hasn’t stopped them, and frankly, they don’t seem to care. These rebells are still at it — making and creating great music.
“To still able to perform shows is in itself a dream come true,” he said.
More infomration about these shows at the Wayfarer (tonight, 7/10) and at Permanent Records (Friday, 7/11) is avalible at the Twang City Instagram Profile.