Famously described by rock crit/night creature Nick Tosches as sounding like she could "fry an egg on her mons veneris" (classy cat, that Nicky T.), Wanda Jackson stood out among the small cadre of women rockabilly singers in the '50s by virtue of her sex-with-a-snarl vocals, songwriting and attitude (she also dated Elvis and lived to tell the tale). That stance, memorably unleashed on stompers like Fujiyama Mama, Hot Dog! That Made Him Ma and Let's Have a Party, earned her Queen Bee status decades before like-minded dames like Wendy O. Williams, Poison Ivy and Poly Styrene came along. It also brought her the undying respect from fifty years of rockabilly and roots fans and musicians, many of whom pay respect to her contributions with this classy tribute CD. The 21 cuts are split evenly between the two phases of Wanda's career "first as a barn-burning rockabilly filly, and later, as a gutsy country singer with a taste for weepers" and for the most part, the covers are right on the money. Red-headed H-bomb Kim Lenz comes closest to evoking Wanda's volcanic vocals on the swinging Cool Love though Candye Kayne and the indestructible Wayne Hancock offer up plenty of whap-a-dang on Rock Your Baby and Let's Have a Party, respectively.  And on the tear-in-yer-beer side, Kelly Hogan's midnight stroll through Right or Wrong should send a shiver up your spine, especially when she lets loose with an glass-shattering falsetto. Same goes for Anna Fermina's Trigger Gospel on Box It Came In (which manages to cover cheating husbands, broken hearts, undying love, and a dead guy in under four minutes), and Jane Baxter Miller's stripped-down take on Kris Kristofferson's One Day At a Time. Neko Case, Laura Cantrell, the Bottle Rockets and hardcore WJ supporter Rosie Flores also do right by Wanda's catalog; the only false note struck is by Trailer Bride, who turn the thermonuclear Fujiyama Mama into some kind of funeral dirge. Bad idea. But that little slip-up won't take away from your enjoyment of this well-deserved tip of the ten-gallon to one of rock's toughest cookies. Even an old crank like Tosches would appreciate it. __________________________________________________

-Paul Gaita