Jim Ringer
Go out any where now, I dare you — cityscape, small town, village, pathway, dirt road byway, alley, bike path, motorboat, jet ski, swimming wharf, canoe, park bench, work field, train car, train rail, train yard, foyer, hallway, elevator, stairway, windowsill, schoolyard, parking lot, driveway, grass levee, and you're likely to see, now or one day soon, the people and presence of everything said and sung in this song.
I can't imagine anyone singing this song as well as Jim Ringer.
Born 29 February 1936, Yell County, Arkansas, USA, d. 17
March 1992, California, USA. In the mid-40s Ringer’s family fled the
poverty-wracked Ozarks in hope of a better life elsewhere. After a brief
stay in Oklahoma, the family settled in Clovis, California. From his
parents, Ringer learned folk songs and traditional music. By this time
he could play guitar and he also sang. In his teenage years Ringer
drifted, got into trouble with the law, and later married, had two
children and then separated from his wife. He played and sang folk and
bluegrass, working in bars around Berkeley and Fresno and he also toured
for a period with an ad hoc folk band. He then settled into a job at
Sweet’s Mill, a folk music camp near Fresno, California, where he was
with Kenny Hall And The Sweet’s Mill String Band. This was in the early
70s, which is when he also made his recording debut with both Hall’s
band and under his own name. Also at this time, he signed with Philo
Records and met singer-guitarist-songwriter Mary McCaslin. From the
mid-70s, Ringer and McCaslin worked together, she was also a Philo
recording artist, and they married in 1978.
Among
songs Ringer composed are ‘Waitin’ For The Hard Times To Go’, which has
been recorded by the Nashville Bluegrass Band, ‘Open Door At Home’,
‘Good To Get Home’, ‘Rachel’, ‘Tramps And Hawkers’, the latter recorded
by Tom Russell, ‘The Band Of Jesse James’, ‘Dusty Desert Wind’, ‘Tulsa’,
‘Linda’s On Her Own’, ‘Still Got That Look’, ‘Any Old Wind’ and ‘Rank
Stranger’. In the early 80s, Ringer switched labels but although his
first release for Flying Fish Records gained cult status his career was
undergoing a difficult time. So too was his marriage and by the end of
the decade he and McCaslin had separated. Ringer’s health was poor and
he had a serious problem with alcohol. After the divorce, he returned to
Fresno, apparently making no more appearances during the last few years
of his life, although he did compose at least one song during this
period, ‘If I Don’t Miss You’, which McCaslin would later record.
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin
