The Queen of Rock-a-Billy is back

If only I had more money. I would buy each and every regular (not those crappy best of or golden hits repackagings) WANDA JACKSON record but unfortunately what little I have is tied up in all the hc and punk releases that are popping up left and right not even taking into account all the classics my collection still lacks.

Her 2003 Heart Trouble LP on Sympathy For The Record Industry is amazing and the latest output I listened to so far. The 2011 released The Party Ain't Over LP was on Third Man Records. Which as you might know was founded by Jack White. A guy I dislike very much. First of all because of this awfull band of his that everybody thinks is so cool while it's totally lame and boring which led to the general ungrounded hype around the dude. And secondly because I feel that he fucked up the 2004 release Van Lear Rose of the last still living Queen of Country. Of course Linda Gail Lewis is good and it was a pleasure to meet her on her Tour supporting the 2004 Boogie Woogie Country Gal release on Castle Records and Dolly Parton released some great records but they cannot hold a candle to either Patsy Cline, Kitty Wells or Loretta Lynn.

Although the CD release of Loretta Lynn's Van Lear Rose was on Interscope Records the Vinyl edition was on Third Man and Jack White mixed the recordings. I was so stoked on getting that release but listening to the CD was a total let down. That boy has no idea how to handle the recordings of a country legend. I think while going along he somehow aquired a bit of knowledge about how to mix his own music and this he applied to the latest Lynn output. It might be possible that I was distracted by the CD sound (when I first heard Earth Crisis' fantastic All Out War release on CD I didn't like it as well which later appeared to be a misconception due to the inferior medium) but I don't think that's the case although I feel an urge to give the LP version another try.

This experience had me disregard Wanda Jacksons 2011 LP The Party Ain't Over because as I already mentioned it's on Third Man. Which probanly means it was fucked up too. But brklnvgn tells us that there is hope. A new LP is in the pipeline and Sugar Hill Records is taking care of the release which seems to have a due date in October. It's supposed to have a back-basics approach that the producer for the Unfinished Business LP encouraged. Wanda being in favor of this might be saying that she was somehow not satisfied with her last record. Why else would you be changing Labels? Or is Third Man defunct? Didn't they just release some fancy stuff for Record Store Day? Whatever it is I'm siked for the new release.









And she has a few US Live Dates coming up over the next months plus one show in Berlin in Nov. Let's hope she adds some more. If not I might have to go on a little trip across the country.


08/10/12 Knucklehead's Saloon Kansas City, MO
08/11/12 Blueberry Hill St. Louis, MO
08/12/12 Hi-Tone Memphis, TN
08/17/12 Maxwell's Hoboken, NJ
08/18/12 Philadelphia Folk Festival Philadelphia, PA
08/31/12 Minnesota State Fair St. Paul, MN
09/01/12 Minnesota State Fair St. Paul, MN
09/02/12 Bumbershoot Festival Seattle, WA
09/12/12 The Square Room Knoxville, TN click here
09/16/12 WorkPlay Theater Birmingham, AL
09/28/12 Bartlesville Community Center Bartlesville, OK
10/12/12 Highline Ballroom NYC
11/9/12 Bassy Berlin, DE

In the rare case of someone not being familiar with her music here are some songs for you to stream.