Hard-Headed Woman: A Celebration Of Wanda Jackson

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Review by Mark Deming, All Music Guide

Nick Tosches once famously described Wanda Jackson as "the greatest menstruating rock & roll singer whom the world has ever known," and while he doubtless chose those words for comic effect, the nervy crudity is not entirely inappropriate. At her best, Wanda Jackson sounded wild and ravenously sensual in a way that few artists dared in the mid-'50s, especially not female vocalists, and sides like "Let's Have a Party," "Hot Dog! That Made Him Mad," and "Fujiama Mama" run neck in neck with Jerry Lee Lewis or Billy Lee Riley for sheer frenzied rockabilly energy. If Jackson was too hot a number for her time and place, she was also smart enough to know it, and in the early '60s she shifted gears and began performing more traditional (and straight-laced) country material, and if the results were less exciting, there's no denying she had a great way with a honky tonk weeper; not unlike Jerry Lee Lewis, today her country sessions sound tougher and more heartfelt than what many of her peers were up to at the time. Outside of rockabilly fanatics and similar roots rock weirdos, Jackson is not nearly as well remembered as her body of work and historical importance would dictate, and Hard-Headed Woman: A Celebration of Wanda Jackson is a tribute album in which more than 20 different acts pay homage to her songs. Appropriately, most of the artists are women unafraid to get rowdy, and Neko Case, Carolyn Mark, Kim Lenz, and Kristi Rose all do right by Wanda's red-hot example, while Kelly Hogan, Jesse Sykes, and Laura Cantrell approach her honky tonk material with a similarly caring touch. Wayne Hancock and Cornell Hurd are also on board to show that the menfolk learned a few valuable lessons from Jackson as well, and they both do better than the few artists who decided to go weird with Jackson's hits (the greatest offender being Trailer Bride's affected take on "Fujiama Mama"). Hard-Headed Woman won't take the place of a decent Wanda Jackson record (Rhino's Rockin' in the Country: The Best of Wanda Jackson is a great starter, and 2003's Heart Trouble shows her voice is still in fine shape), but it offers concrete proof that folks who know good rock and good country dig Miss Wanda the most, and this is one of those rare tribute albums where the results are as good as the intentions.