Jason Ringenberg – A Day At The Farm With Farmer Jason

Any notion that Jason Ringenberg’s first children’s record is just for kids is shot to shitsville with “The Tractor Goes Chug Chug Chug”, the fourth track on this stupidly infectious solo outing. All southern-fried wah-wah guitar and clickity-clack bottom end, the song celebrates a hard-working little farmhand that doesn’t ever rest and doesn’t ever play. Sounding as excited as a Captain Crunched 6-year-old on Saturday morning, Ringenberg dares you not to sing along: “Driving down the road or plowing through the mud/The tractor goes chug chug chug.” By the time he hits the second chorus, resistance is utterly futile, whether you’re 7 or 70.

The rest of A Day At The Farm With Farmer Jason is every bit as funtastic. The alt-country pioneer serves up greasy roadhouse R&B with “He’s A Hog Hog Hog”, blazes into bluegrass territory on “Corny Corn”, and summons the spirit of Tennessee Ernie Ford for “I’m Just An Old Cow”.

The most important question, though, is what will the kids get out of the album’s Romper Room-goes-rural songs? Well, mostly a whole lot of misinformation. Ringenberg can pretend all he wants that farm pigs lead the life of riley, but even the most clueless city slicker knows that, sooner or later, they end up becoming pork on a fork. He also neglects to mention that, for every guitar-pickin’ chicken who makes it big in Nashville, two billion end up next to the mashed potatoes. And that the real reason cows are set loose in the field is because it makes them taste better with A1 steak sauce. And…actually, the kids can be thankful Farmer Jason kept all that stuff to himself.