[ARSCLIST] lost another pioneer

[robert wasserman <wasserma2001@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Just letting people know of another sad passing last week.


A Mid-South woman known as a pioneer of rockabilly music has died. Cordell
Jackson was the first female recording engineer in the U.S. Jackson was born
in Pontotoc, Mississippi but later settled in Memphis. Friends say
81-year-old Jackson had been ill for several months.

Cordell Jackson is best known as the rockin' grandma who plays rings around
rockabilly guitarist Brian Setzer in a 1991 Budweiser ad. But to rockabilly
and roots-music aficionados, she's better known as an early rockabilly
pioneer, the first woman recording engineer in the U.S., an early woman
record label owner, the first woman to write, sing, accompany, record,
engineer, produce and manufacture her first record, and of course, the
rockin' grandma who can play rings around Brian Setzer.

Originally from Pontotoc, Mississippi, she was born Cordell Miller on July
15, 1923. Her father, a fiddler, lead a popular local string band called the
Pontotoc Ridge Runners. He encouraged the young Cordell to play music; she
learned guitar, piano, and upright bass, and at age twelve she was
performing with her father's band on his radio show in Tupelo. Later she
added mandolin, banjo, and harmonica to her repertoire, but she's best known
for electric guitar -- her trademark Hagstrom.

In 1943, she married William Jackson, and settled in Memphis. According to
Kicks magazine, "It was either marry a country dude or a city dude, and I
chose a city dude." In Memphis she joined the Fisher Air Craft Band, and
wrote songs (she almost won a Hillbilly Song contest sponsored by Tex
Ritter). But her entrance into rockabilly legend -- as well as into the
lists of woman "firsts" -- began in 1947 with her purchase of recording
equipment from Kabakoff Radio and Appliance in Memphis. With this installed
in her living room, Miriam Linna writes in the liner notes to Cordell
Jackson: Live In Chicago, she "took off taping songs and sing-alongs, and
experimenting with local musician pals." She also wrote songs and recorded
demos for other acts for Sam Phillips's Memphis Recording Studio before he
started Sun Records.

Jackson created Moon Records in 1956, to record her own single, "Beboppers
Christmas" b/w "Rock and Roll Christmas. She was soon in the business of
releasing rockabilly singles by others. The best-known Moon act, Allen Page
and the Big Four, originally came to Memphis to audition for Sun. Jackson
says, "They aimed for the Sun and ended up on the Moon!" [Kicks magazine]
Allen is best known for the moderately popular single, "Dateless Night,"
written by Jackson, and "She's the One That's Got It." The Big Four enter
rock & roll history, at least as a footnote, as an early favorite and small
influence on the Fab Four.

Locally active in Memphis through the 70s and 80s, Jackson worked up a
humorous persona called Maxie Pearl, the alter-ego of Minnie Pearl, who
chased money instead of men; recorded a novelty song called "Football Widow"
which still gets local airplay in Memphis during the football season, and
produced a Contemporary Christian radio show. But she received more national
attention -- and international attention, within the European rockabilly
scene --when the 80s rockabilly and roots rock revival caught up with her.
Alex Chilton and Tav Falco got her playing to a new generation of rockabilly
audiences . Tav Falco's Panther Burns covered "Dateless Night" and "She's
the One That's Got It" and invited her to play with members of the bands
between sets. In 1983 she released a 4-song EP if instrumentals on Moon,
"Knockin' 60."

Discovering the Moon singles were collector's items, Jackson revived Moon
Records in 1980 to release a compilation album, The 50's Rock on the Moon of
Memphis Tennessee: An Oddity. The record itself is now a collector's item.

Most recently, Jackson released Cordell Jackson: Live in Chicago," on
Bughouse Records. Recorded on November 16, 1995 at Schubas in Chicago, the
CD showcases Jackson's growly guitar style and her boundless sense of fun.

Jackson remains something of an icon; a cherished and colorful character on
the Memphis music scene, she opens her house for tours every August. She
made a cameo appearance in the film Great Balls of Fire, and continues to
flout conventions. Says Cordell: "If I want to wang dang rock 'n' roll at 69
years old dressed up in an antebellum dress, it ain't nobody's business but
mine."

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