Wanda Jackson Delivers Ovation-Worthy ‘Encore’

With her latest album, Encore, “Queen of Rockabilly,” Grammy Award-nominee, and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Wanda Jackson exits retirement — does an artist ever really retire? — adding another compelling project to her essential oeuvre, a succinct but enthralling capstone to six-plus decades spent in the music business.

“Big Baby” features a swingy chorus built on a mid-’50s progression à la Carl Perkins. The song’s bridge highlights alternating guitar and piano solos, respectively reminiscent of Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis, the track held together by Jackson’s crystalline yet aptly unpolished vocal. “If you’re thinking about leaving / it should be understood / you’ll be leaving from this city / in a coffin made of wood,” she declares on “Two Shots,” her voice paradoxically foreboding and casual, as if she could slip a blade between your ribs, authentically regret doing so, then do it again. Elle King and Joan Jett (in one of three guest appearances) join on the hook-filled and roadhouse-ready chorus.

“You Drive Me Wild” blends a bluesy riff, punkish vocal, and irresistible melody, bringing to mind Jackson’s 2003 version of the Charlie McCoy-penned “Funnel of Love,” a swampy and dark-country collaboration with The Cramps (that is, in turn, a remake of her own 1961 version). “You Drive Me Wild” (as well as the “Funnel of Love” redo) exemplifies the kind of multigenre syntheses that are now part and parcel of contemporary Americana, a broad category Jackson helped to pioneer.

“Good Girl Down,” one of four songs on Encore co-written by Jackson, illustrates the 83-year-old’s ability to still deliver a bawdy and defiant tune. Angaleena Presley and Candi Carpenter contribute well-timed and minimal backup vocals that conjure early ’60s Motown classics (and Jackson’s own 1961 crossover hit “Right or Wrong”). The song serves as a counter to a veritable class of ditties that tout the resilience of men, including Alabama’s “Can’t Keep a Good Man Down,” Jackson standing throughout her career as a potent female figure, personally and professionally.

Jackson’s take on “It Keeps Right on A-Hurtin’” is faster-paced and edgier that the polished and primetime-friendly version originally recorded by Johnny Tillotson in 1962. “We Gotta Stop” is a wake-up call for a relationship mired in dysfunction. “Jealousy got the best of me / like a bullet to my heart,” Jackson sings, lamenting how sinister feelings have eclipsed what was once a pure and perhaps unconditional love for her partner. “Treat Me Like a Lady” shows Jackson moving seamlessly between raucous verses and more tender and restrained choruses. The album closes with “That’s What Love Is,” an encouraging portrait of two people aging together, a union that has thrived as years have passed, enriched by blessings and challenges alike.

Though her early work is generally dubbed traditional country, Jackson has, since her 1958 debut, consistently textured her songs with inflections, timbres, and sonic elements associated with multiple genres (2007’s Wanda Jackson: The Ultimate Collection is highly recommended). With Encore, Jackson demonstrates her indomitable versatility, each track spotlighting her signature voice. Now, if the first encore is sufficiently well-received, will there be a second?