This came out in 2004 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
You are forgiven if you’ve never heard of Wanda Jackson.
After all, the ’50s rockabilly wildcat who howled and growled hits like Mean Mean Man and Let’s Have A Party hasn’t released an album in North America in a decade (her primary audience is European). But even though Jackson just blew out 66 candles on Oct. 20 — and even though she’s spent much of the last 35 years singing gospel — you’d never know it from her raucous, rip-snorting comeback album Heart Trouble. In a voice that’s well-aged but still packs plenty of gritty sexuality, the roots-rock spitfire picks up right where she left off, cranking out a twangy, hickory-smoked set of country and rockabilly highlighted by remakes of her own classics and cameos by Elvis Costello (who shares a duet on Crying Time), The Cramps (who add some goo-goo muck to Funnel of Love and Riot in Cell Block #9) and Blasters guitar ace Dave Alvin (whose twangy guitar licks fire several cuts). Not digging it is unforgiveable.
