Wanda Jackson will perform in The Ballroom at the Taft Theatre on Saturday December 8 with Frontier Ruckus and Jonny Fritz. Widely known and respected as “The Queen of Rockabilly,” Jackson is credited with being the first woman to ever record a rock and roll song—“Let’s Have a Party” in 1958. In 2009, Jackson was inducted into the “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame” and, in 2010, was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Americana Music Awards.
Unfinished Business, the new album from legendary singer and “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame” inductee Wanda Jackson, will be released October 9 on Sugar Hill Records. This is Jackson’s 31st studio album and marks the producing debut of fellow renowned musician and songwriter Justin Townes Earle. Of working with Earle, Jackson comments, “From day one I really liked Justin’s idea to take me back to my roots and make a record of country, blues, and rockabilly songs. The band was extra tight and great to work with during the whole process. The record just sounds terrific and I’m hoping that my fans enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed making it.”
Unfinished Business continues Jackson’s unparalleled five-and-a-half decades of influential and groundbreaking music making. Recorded in Nashville at House of David Studios in early 2012, the 10-song album features renditions of “California Stars” (Woody Guthrie, Jay Bennett, Jeff Tweedy), “Pushover” (Billy Davis and Tony Clarke), “It’s All Over Now” (Bobby Womack and Shirley Jean Womack) as well as a duet with Earle on “Am I Even A Memory” (Greg Garing).
The new album follows Jackson’s 2011 Jack White-produced The Party Ain’t Over, which received both widespread critical and commercial acclaim. Of the record, NPR Music raved “At 73, she still exudes a youthful sound and spirit, and decorates her unique voice with an effortlessly deep and gravelly swoop at the most unexpected times,” while The New York Times noted Jackson “still sounds fantastic, and her gnarled, feisty vocals are a good fit with Mr. White’s scrappy production.” Moreover, the album found Jackson enjoying her first ever charting on the Billboard 200 chart, peaking at #58. Jack White declared “[Jackson is] influential to every modern female singer, whether they know about her or not. She broke down those walls in the beginning, when it was the hardest to do.”
After performing to sold-out audiences across the country last year, including a 10-city tour supporting Adele, Jackson embarks on a series of performances this fall. Critically praised for her recent live shows, The Los Angeles Times claims “…she’s still fired up with power and sass,” while the Minneapolis Star Tribune adds “Holy moly, what a powerhouse. This tiny woman in red fringe and jet black hair can still sing with the same power and pizazz of the girl a quarter her age. Her voice still shifts effortlessly from warbly to scratchy to clear as a bell, and still has that girly then sultry then girly then again sultry quality about it.”
