Post by Born2BBruin on Apr 16, 2022 21:20:48 GMT -8
J brought up Jim Ringer and his song "Still Got That Look" on BZOF.
Ringer is an important part of California musical history. At one time, it looked like he would be a major star but he wound up as a cult figure instead.
He was born in Yell County in the Arkansas Ozarks. During the Dust Bowl years, when Jim was a boy, his family moved to Oklahoma and then to California. As I noted on the blue board, this mirrored the movements of my dad's family. The Ringers settled in Clovis, a town near Fresno. Jim had a rough life and by 18 was serving a three-year prison sentence. For a few years afterward, he was a transient hopping freight trains from job to job until 1969.
He took his shot at music in 1969 and two years later, he was a hippie in Berkeley, where he and 12 other friends bought a 1948 Chevy school bus and formed the Portable Folk Festival. They spent 1971 touring the country and performing. Ringer moved on and began performing with Kenny Hall & the Sweet's Mill String Band. He cut an album with them in 1972 but more importantly, he met fellow folk singer and songwriter Mary McCaslin at Sweet's Mill. That year, he also cut his first solo album, "Waitin' for the Hard Times to Go".
Ringer and McCaslin teamed up professionally and personally. They became known for their contrasting voices and personalities and for how they somehow managed to make them blend. After he and McCaslin were married, they recorded a duet "The Bramble and the Rose."
He and McCaslin split up in 1989, and three years later, Ringer died on St. Patrick's Day.
Ringer is an important part of California musical history. At one time, it looked like he would be a major star but he wound up as a cult figure instead.
He was born in Yell County in the Arkansas Ozarks. During the Dust Bowl years, when Jim was a boy, his family moved to Oklahoma and then to California. As I noted on the blue board, this mirrored the movements of my dad's family. The Ringers settled in Clovis, a town near Fresno. Jim had a rough life and by 18 was serving a three-year prison sentence. For a few years afterward, he was a transient hopping freight trains from job to job until 1969.
He took his shot at music in 1969 and two years later, he was a hippie in Berkeley, where he and 12 other friends bought a 1948 Chevy school bus and formed the Portable Folk Festival. They spent 1971 touring the country and performing. Ringer moved on and began performing with Kenny Hall & the Sweet's Mill String Band. He cut an album with them in 1972 but more importantly, he met fellow folk singer and songwriter Mary McCaslin at Sweet's Mill. That year, he also cut his first solo album, "Waitin' for the Hard Times to Go".
Ringer and McCaslin teamed up professionally and personally. They became known for their contrasting voices and personalities and for how they somehow managed to make them blend. After he and McCaslin were married, they recorded a duet "The Bramble and the Rose."
He and McCaslin split up in 1989, and three years later, Ringer died on St. Patrick's Day.
