Some know the legendary
Wanda Jackson
only as either a wild
rockabilly
banshee or a
gospel
singer.
Jackson
was also a solid, original
country
singer and this collection by
Ace
, one of the very best assembled onto a single disc, proves the point in spades. When
emerged form the
years, her
records contained more than a little of that untamable spirit that made her hits of the 1950s so essential. The recordings in this set cover the years 1958 to 1972. They say as much about Nashville as they do
-- check out the prototype-psychedelic guitar solo in
"Right or Wrong"
from 1961. There's a ton of fuzz in the riff, and the solo itself is the progenitor of
Davie Allan & the Arrows
' sound.
walked the line between the sophisticated phrasing of
Patsy Cline
(check
"Slippin'"
) and the throaty, wilder, rawer,
Rose Maddox
boogie
and hillbilly sounds (
"You Bug Me Bad"
). There are 30 selections on this platter that run the gamut between the two poles. The bluesy hard edge in the grain of
's voice would never allow her to become so mainstream as to be a national icon, and her competition was stiff:
Tammy Wynette
,
Connie Smith
Lynn Anderson
, and
Loretta Lynn
were just a few of
's biggest stars at the time.
also never let the
rock & roll
completely go out of her way of singing a song, even in the real weepers like the pedal steel drenched
"You'll Always Have My Love,"
and the string-soaked
"I Cried Every Time You Hurt Me."
The tunes from the later '60s with horns (akin to the
Tijuana Brass
) as heard in 1968's
"My Baby Walked Right out on Me,"
gave
a wider platform to let her considerable voice rip. Of course,
"Fancy Satin Pillows"
and
"A Woman Lives for Love"
are both here as well, representing
's last hits for
Capitol
. The set ends with
"Tennessee Women's Prison,"
a
honky tonk
song recorded as her last single for
in 1972, and the a burning rendition of
"Let's Have a Party,"
from a 1969 live album produced by
Ken Nelson
. For those who snagged the
Bear Family
single disc of
's
material, this one from
is the next essential chapter in the story. ~ Thom Jurek