Album review: Wanda Jackson's 'The Party Ain’t Over'

The Oklahoma firebrand once dubbed “the female Elvis” for raucous rockabilly records such as “Let’s Have a Party” shows that a 73-year-old grandmother is still fully capable of ripping things up — especially when you throw in with someone as party-ready as producer Jack White.

Like his “Van Lear Rose” collaboration with Loretta Lynn, White surrounds one of his heroines with the kind of sizzling and muscular instrumental backing you’d expect from a brash rock upstart, replete with reverb-soaked vocals over blazing, electric guitars, bass, drums and horns.

Several of the song choices — Harlan Howard’s down-and-out “Busted,” Little Richard’s hit “Rip It Up,” Johnny Kidd’s “Shakin’ All Over,” Eddie Cochran’s “Nervous Breakdown” — are era-appropriate for Jackson. The real treat is in the way she and White tackle more contemporary stuff like Bob Dylan’s “Thunder on the Mountain” (in place of the composer’s reference to lusting after Alicia Keys, Jackson sings of wondering “where Jerry Lee could be”) and Amy Winehouse’s spooky “You Know I’m No Good.”

Her thin, raspy voice retains plenty of sass six decades on, and White’s live-sounding band conjures the ambience of a gritty gig in some back alley bar for a rowdy crowd of mariachi bikers. Well done, Grandma Wanda.

—Randy Lewis

Wanda Jackson
“The Party Ain’t Over”
Third Man/Nonesuch
Three stars (Out of four)

Comments

[deeaiden]

I love Wanda Jackson. "Let's Have a Party", "Mean, Mean Man", "Fujiyama Mama"...my goodness. Check out some of her old TV videos from the 50's on Youtube. She was a stone fox then...doesn't seem like much has changed.

[Vincent]

And don't forget "Funnel Of Love," with some sensational Roy Clark guitar work, from 1961, one of the great B-sides in history (flip of "Right Or Wrong").

[Sweet Mamma J]

You do not know who you are calling Grandma...she could level you with one look from those piercing green eyes...have some respect.