Wanda Jackson embarking on tour Saturday to promote upcoming album “The Party Ain’t Over”
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Wanda Jackson will embark Saturday on a special tour to promote her new album “The Party Ain’t Over,” due out Jan. 25.
The Oklahoma City resident will play a special shortened set Saturday in Nashville, Tenn., at the Ryman Auditorium for the Grand Ole Opry. It will be part of a show with Del McCoury and fellow Oklahoma native Vince Gill.
The Queen of Rockabilly will play sold-out release shows on Jan. 21 at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, N.Y., and on Jan. 23 at El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles. A second night at Los Angeles’s El Rey Theatre on Jan. 24 also will include The Third Man House Band featuring alt-rocker Jack White on guitar. Newly announced February tour dates will take Jackson back through New York as well as to Philadelphia, Boston, DC, and Dallas, following her previously announced European tour. while the newly announced February tour dates will take her back through New York as well as to Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Dallas, after she returns her previously announced European tour.
This string of live shows are designed to promote the release of Jackson’s highly anticipated new album “The Party Aint Over,” produced by White and scheduled for release on Third Man and Nonesuch Records on Jan. 25.
The album can be pre-ordered now on vinyl and CD in the Nonesuch Store at www.nonesuch.com/store. The first 250 pre-orders include an exclusive, limited-edition poster autographed by Jackson.
I personally can’t wait to hear “The Party Ain’t Over,” which features the First Lady of Rock ‘n’ Roll covering songs by Amy Winehouse, Bob Dylan and Jimmie Rodgers. See the complete track listing after the break.
When Jackson, the justly crowned Queen of Rockabilly, recorded “Let’s Have A Party,” a tune she made into a hit of her own in 1958 even after one-time boyfriend Elvis Presley had released a version of it, her delivery of the chorus wasn’t so much a suggestion as a command. As the title — and, more importantly, the contents — of her latest album, “The Party Ain’t Over,” indicates, this feisty septuagenarian artist is as galvanizing as ever. Jackson was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, honored with a long-time-coming, early influence accolade for her pivotal role in the evolution of popular music, especially where female artists were concerned. As a teenager in the mid-50s, the diminutive Jackson was the first woman to perform unadulterated rock and roll — and she one-upped the boys defining this new genre, Presley included, with her exhilaratingly forthright approach. The young Jackson, a Maud native, came across as both gritty and glamorous; a playfully suggestive growl to her voice matched the daring, handmade outfits she wore, short skirts and fringed dresses that have inspired would-be bad girls for decades to come. A tireless touring artist for more than 50 years, Jackson continues to win over new, young fans, including guitarist/vocalist/White Stripes founder Jack White.
On this debut for Third Man / Nonesuch Records, produced and arranged by White at his Nashville studio, the spirited Jackson proves that brash rock and roll attitude need not have an age limit. The BBC calls the album “rich, warm, big-hearted and hilarious … a sumptuous, brassy stew of country and blues.” Jackson’s trademark growl remains intact on rockers like “Rip It Up” and “Nervous Breakdown;” she opens the set with an echo-laden sneer on a rollicking version of “Shakin’ All Over” and ends it 10 songs later with a plaintive take on Rodgers’ “Yodel #6,” along the way gamely tackling country, gospel, densely worded Dylan, and a little bit of Tin Pan Alley. Jackson and White are a remarkably simpatico pairing; their collaboration came together quickly, serendipitously. One of Jackson’s colleagues had originally approached White about doing a duet with Jackson for a proposed “Wanda and Friends” disc, but White demurred. Instead, he offered something better, inviting Jackson to cut a single with him for his Third Man label, and that swiftly led this kindred spirits to put together an entire album.
In the press materials, Jackson had this to say about working with White:
I was scared at first because I didn’t know what this young rock star was going to expect of me or ask me to do. I kind of had shaky feet, deciding whether I wanted to do this or not. Of course I knew about him, I have to admit, from the album he did with Loretta Lynn and how successful that was. That certainly got my attention when he said he was interested in doing one with me. So we began sending material to each other; he sent me the things he thought I should do or he wanted me to do, and I sent him some ideas of things I had put aside for recording at a future date. When I finally got to Nashville, he put me at ease immediately. He’s just so laid back and such a cool guy that I found myself wanting to please him, I wanted to do it his way. My husband [Jackson’s manager of 40 years] and I told him, you do this. If you want a suggestion from me, feel free to ask. Otherwise, you make the decisions. That gave him a lot of freedom and I wanted him to have that freedom. And I think that’s what made it so good as an album. As I began singing these songs and listening to the playbacks he made, I realized he wasn’t wanting to change my style of singing at all. He just wanted me to have new, fresher material. And I said, hey I could do this. I can sing like Wanda Jackson. He just wanted more of Wanda than I was used to putting out. And apparently it worked.
White and Jackson came up with inspired and wide-ranging song choices that reflect Jackson’s long history with country, gospel, and even the big-band music she remembers from her childhood as well as with rock and roll: Harlan Howard’s woozy lament “Busted”; the Andrew Sisters’ kitschy tropical travelogue, “Rum and Coca Cola,” a fitting companion to her own “Fujiyama Mama”; Dylan’s rockabilly fever dream, “Thunder on the Mountain.” They also recorded a cover of contemporary bad-girl Amy Winehouse’s “You Know That I’m No Good,” which White first released as a single in 2009, paired with “Shakin All Over.” The Winehouse song suits her, Jackson says, but she’s careful to draw the line between life and art:
On the one hand, I’m good, on the other hand, I’m bad. That seems to be the image this new generation of fans that I have has given me. It’s like the title of the documentary about my life that recently came out: ‘The Sweet Lady with the Nasty Voice.’ Maybe that says that I become a different person, a different persona, when I sing those songs. I have a good reputation, always have had, and respect from everyone as a lady, and that pleases me very much. But the young girls think I’m this hard gal that gets her way and storms in. It’s just because of the material I’ve sung and the way I’ve sung it. And that’s okay. That’s cute.
- BAM
Wanda Jackson “The Party Ain’t Over” track listing
1 Shakin’ All Over (Johnny Kidd) 3:47
2 Rip It Up (R.A. Blackwell, J. Marascalco) 1:52
3 Busted (Harlan Howard) 2:48
4 Rum and Coca-Cola (Jeri Sullavan, Paul Baron, Morey Amsterdam) 4:39
5 Thunder on the Mountain (Bob Dylan) 5:13
6 You Know I’m No Good (Amy Winehouse) 4:29
7 Like a Baby (Jesse Stone) 2:40
8 Nervous Breakdown (Mario Roccuzzo) 3:28
9 Dust on the Bible (Johnny Bailes, Walter Bailes) 3:17
10 Teach Me Tonight (Sammy Cahn, Gene de Paul) 3:17
11 Blue Yodel #6 (Jimmie Rodgers)
-BAM
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Comments
this is excellent. however, jack white, “alt-rocker” hahah, come on! white stripes is straight up ROCK.
I have admired Wanda Jackson since I was 6 years old. When I was a teen, her song, Right or Wrong, was one of my favorites and I still love it. I am delighted that she is still on top of her career and making a new album. A beautiful, funny, sassy lady. More power to you Wanda.
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