Wanda's never ceased

US rockabilly singer Wanda Jackson. Photo / Supplied

The word "legend" is bandied around loosely these days, but with 50s rockabilly star Wanda Jackson - "the sweet girl with the nasty voice" as she became known - the description fits.

As a teenager in the 50s she toured with (and dated) Elvis Presley; scored minor hits with Mean Mean Man, Fujiyama Mama (big in Japan in 1958) and then broke big with her signature song, the larynx-tearing invitation Let's Have a Party in 1960.

Ironically that hit came just as rockabilly and rock'n'roll - after the death of Buddy Holly, Elvis in the army and Little Richard abandoning rock'n'roll for the church - were dying out.

But earlier, when few women singers let alone teenage girls were making proto-rock'n'roll, the stylishly dressed Jackson was on the frontline having a ball. And working for it.

"I recorded a lot of rockabilly - four singles a year and two albums was the contract I had with Capitol Records - but I could get no airplay.

"America was having a hard time accepting Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis, so for a teenage girl to come out singing it ... But I kept recording, putting a country song on one side and rock on the other hoping to get airplay for [at least] one. But by 1960 I had given up on rock.

"Rockabilly had a very small window of time if you narrow it down to a country artist singing this new style of music. There were only about five of us in the mid-50s.

"Although the rockabilly went over great on my personal appearances, I went back to country music - and at that point Let's Have a Party was pulled off my first album. So I backed in through rock'n'roll again."

At 72, Jackson - the Queen of Rockabilly - is back again.

In the mid-90s she toured with Tex-Mex rocker Rosie Flores and connected with a new audience of younger fans; in 2003 she recorded the Heart Trouble album which featured Elvis Costello, the Cramps, Dave Alvin and other admirers; and last year she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an Early Influence.

Improbably, verteran English post-punk outift The Fall cover Jackson's Funnel of Love on their latest album; she played this year's SXSW festival in Austin ... and she has recorded a new album produced by longtime fan Jack White (White Stripes/Raconteurs/Dead Weather).

The forthcoming album with White should take Jackson to a wide audience: the advance single is her tough cover of Amy Winehouse's You Know I'm No Good backed with a horn-driven version of Johnny Kidd and the Pirates' 1960 stomper Shakin' All Over.

Not much else is known about the album ("Jack wants it to be a surprise to the industry as well as to fans") but Bob Dylan suggested to White that Jackson cover his Thunder on the Mountain.

"I had found out through his satellite radio programme that he [Dylan] was a fan. But Thunder on the Mountain? It has 15 verses. I thought I would never finish singing that," she laughs.

"Jack is mixing the album this month. It's getting real exciting - and to be able to work with a young person with all this enthusiasm and creativity has been a shot in the arm for me. I'm glad to be back and feel very comfortable here."

Although Jackson's rockabilly days effectively ended within a few years of Let's Have a Party her career continued: she returned to the country music she grew up on as a child in Oklahoma, where she still lives with her husband/manager of 40 years Wendell Goodman; she recorded gospel throughout the 70s, and in the 80s the resurgence of rockabilly - prompted by the Stray Cats, who are huge Jackson fans - saw her old albums reissued and she found regular rockabilly work in Europe.

The person who had first encouraged her to move from country to hard'n'fast rockabilly was Elvis Presley who she met in 1955 when she was playing second on a bill to him.

They toured together and Jackson recalls those days as full of wild music but "a very innocent time, the last days of America's innocence".

"We were singing about things teenagers did. I was 17 when I started recording so we were talking about proms and dances and riding in cars. Naturally it could be taken another way I suppose, that depends on your mind.

"When Elvis sang Good Rockin' Tonight what we meant was dancing, but somebody put a different meaning to that."

Jackson and Presley grew close while touring together and there was some "dating".

"It wasn't traditional dating where he drove to my house and picked me up. It was when we were on the road. My father acted as my road manager and him being with me made all the difference.

"I would go out with Elvis and afterwards grab a hamburger and drive around and talk, but you have to remember I was just 17 or 18."

Her dates with Elvis often meant Presley's musicians Scotty Moore and Bill Black, as well as her father, coming along.

"We'd sometimes take in a matinee movie if we got into a town early where we could sneak off for a little privacy. But it was all innocent and I'm proud of that."

Jackson - whose soft drawl belies the firepower of her singing style - says these past years are a match for the excitement of those days of 50 years ago.

"I've always loved to travel and entertain live audiences. For a while I was doing a week here and there on a country show in Branson, Missouri. But I found I wasn't looking forward to that because even though those audiences were gracious and accepting, they weren't young people with that enthusiasm they have.

"So I didn't do that for too long because I need that energy from a young audience. You can't beat that. If we could bottle that, we'd make millions."

LOWDOWN

Who: Rockabilly legend Wanda Jackson
Where: Kings Arms, June 22
Trivia: Jackson's biggest hit Let's Have a Party - which Elvis Presley had first sung - came in 1960 when a radio DJ in Des Moines, Iowa picked the track off a two-year old Jackson album, started playing it and got a great response. He encouraged Capitol to release it as a single and it became top 40 hit for Jackson.