By: centraljersey.com
Her musical journey is still going strong, and is making a return trip to The Record Collector for an Oct. 9 concert at the intimate Bordentown venue.
"That’s a very quaint little set-up there," Ms. Jackson says during a telephone interview. "I guess it holds the distinction of being the smallest place I work."
Of her last appearance there, she says, "I remember having so much fun because I’m just right there in the middle of them, and I’ve always liked that, I like to look my audience right in the eye, so that works for me."
The Lustre Kings, a rockabilly group from Albany, N.Y., will join Ms. Jackson. "I work with them every chance I get," she says. "They’re a great rock ‘n’ roll band."
Ms. Jackson credits much of her success to her parents. When she was a young girl in California, her father taught her to play guitar and piano. When the family moved to Oklahoma (where she was born), she performed in talent shows, and was signed by Decca records while a junior in high school. In 1955, after graduating, she found herself on tour with Elvis, and got a close-up look at his emergence as the biggest star in the world.
"His career was just exploding," she says, "and all the excitement at the shows was thrilling, you know. Here I was, a 17-year-old girl myself and of course I had a crush on him too, like every little girl in America did, and a lot of them still do. A lot of women ask questions – ‘What was Elvis like, did he kiss good? I had a crush on him all my life.’"
So what was he like?
"He was a very well mannered, soft spoken guy, real southern gentlemen," she says. "He was also like 19 or 20 years old… and he was just a kid who was tickled to death with his life and his career. He was having the time of his life, having all these girls hanging on him, and pulling on him, and screaming and crying. He enjoyed every bit of it."
More important than their dates, though, was Elvis’ influence on Ms. Jackson as a performer. It was Elvis who told her the money was in a new sound called rock ‘n’ roll. That led to a Top 40 hit on the pop charts with "Let’s Have a Party," and a spot at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, to which she was inducted as an Early Influence in 2009. "I just feel that Elvis was the exact reason why I was inducted, because of his influence on me," she says. "For, first of all, making me see the importance of expanding myself, stretching myself, not to be just country. He kept saying, ‘You can do this kind of music, it’s the next big thing, and the kids are buying it. This is what young people want and they’re buying records now. Find material that they’ll like.’
"I wound up being the first girl to do it, and a lot of journalists would print that I could keep up with the guys, I could do the same stuff they did."
And she did it in high heels. Watching her old performances on YouTube, one is reminded about what people said about Ginger Rogers – that she did everything Fred Astaire did, only backward and in high heels. Ms. Jackson rocked with the best of them, holding a big guitar and wearing a dress. It was a style she developed with the help of her mother, who made her clothes.
"I didn’t like all the cowboy clothes that all the girls was wearing," she says. "Country pinafores, cowboy hats and boots, you know. I’m short, I’ve always been short, and I looked terrible in them and I knew it… And I said, ‘Mother, can you make me something that’s kind of sexy, I don’t like these old clothes.’ We designed glamorous, sexy dresses, and the high heels, so I gave the ladies of country music a whole new lock. And shortly after that, women were copying my style."
The whole package exuded an attitude that defined her music. Her voice was powerful and commanding, and the lyrics were as sexy as the clothes. "Hot Dog That Made Him Made" is about a girl who teaches her neglectful boyfriend a lesson by going on a date with his best friend. "He said my heart is on my sleeve/ And if I didn’t change that he would leave/ Well, you should’ve seen him, was his face red/ When I laughed and told him just go right ahead."
"I liked the songs, and I liked having this persona come through on a record," she says. "It wasn’t exactly my personality, it kind of was, I guess."
In addition to touring, she’s getting ready for the release of a new album produced by Jack White of The White Stripes.
"He wanted to produce a single and an album with me. I was thrilled, I knew who he was, I wasn’t real familiar with his style," she says. "I knew he was one of the hottest acts on the planet but I didn’t know that much about him."
She says she gave Mr. White free reign over song selections and arrangements.
"I had to get what he was wanting from me," she says. "It started off as a bit of a challenge, but I got comfortable working with him, it’s just been a great relationship now."
A vinyl single featuring the songs "You’re No Good" and "Shaking All Over" has been released on White’s Third Man record label, and is available on iTunes. The full album will be released on Nonesuch records, which is owned by Warner Bros., later this year.
All of that work, the recording, the touring, is coming at an age when most people are retiring. She sees it as a testament to the music of the ’50s.

