Once poised for widespread fame, singer/songwriter Jim Ringer instead cultivated a devoted cult audience. Born in Yell County amid the Arkansas Ozarks, his family relocated to California’s Central Valley during the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s. Hardship marked those early years; at eighteen he entered a three-year prison term. For several years after his release he drifted, catching freight trains between short-term jobs, until turning professional musician in 1969. Two years later, living as a Berkeley hippie, he joined twelve companions in purchasing a 1948 Chevy school bus to launch the Portable Folk Festival, whose members spent 1971 crisscrossing the country with performances. Toward year’s end he began appearing alongside Kenny Hall & the Sweet’s Mill String Band, recording an album with the group in 1972. That same year he issued his debut solo effort, Waitin’ for the Hard Times to Go, on Folk-Legacy Records. Meeting singer Mary McCaslin in 1972 led to both personal and professional partnership, though he maintained an independent performing schedule. He joined the Philo roster in 1973 with the release of Good to Get Home; two additional albums appeared over the next three years. Following their marriage, the couple cut the Philo duet “The Bramble and the Rose.” Ringer moved to Flying Fish in 1981, issuing Endangered Species, whose track “Whiskey and Cocaine” drew strong notice and whose sessions included the Dillards, the Burrito Brothers, and the Hot Band. He and McCaslin parted in 1989; three years afterward he died on St. Patrick’s Day.
