Biography
Cordell Jackson, also known as the Rock n Roll Granny, was an American guitarist and the first woman to produce, engineer, arrange and promote music on her own rock and roll music label. A pioneer in her field, she played guitar in a raw and unapologetically abrasive way.
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Cordell Jackson, also known as the Rock n Roll Granny, was an American guitarist and the first woman to produce, engineer, arrange and promote music on her own rock and roll music label. A pioneer in her field, she played guitar in a raw and unapologetically abrasive way. Growing up in Pontotoc, Mississippi, she took an early interest in music-making, learning to play banjo, piano, upright bass and harmonica. By age 12, she was sitting in with her father’s string band, the Pontotoc Ridge Runners. “When I picked up the guitar, I could see it in their eyes: ‘Little girls don’t play guitar,’” she later recalled. “I looked right at ’em and said, ‘I do.’”
In 1943, she moved to Memphis and began trying to scratch her way into the male-dominated music scene. She eventually befriended and recorded demos with the producer Sam Phillips, who would go on to start Sun Records, the first label to record Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, and Johnny Cash. But she grew impatient with Phillips, who saw her gender as an obstacle, and founded Moon Records in 1956, becoming the first woman in U.S. to record and produce their own music and securing her place in history.
Recording sessions for Moon Records were held in Cordell’s living room, where she engineered, produced and released music by regional artists. It wasn’t until the early 1980’s, when she happened to cross paths with the musician, performance artist and filmmaker Tav Falco, that things really changed for her. It wasn’t until she was almost 60 when she played her first professional live gig. Jackson’s playing has been described as “some of the most vicious, nasty rock ’n’ roll guitar I’ve ever heard in my life.” She headlined at colorful, now-vanished rock clubs in New York City and not only broke guitar strings but guitar picks during her solo performances. Her performances were a testament to the exhilarating power of ragged, unmanicured music. In her music, and in everything she set her mind to, Jackson was nothing if not determined.
- Lifespan
- 1923-2004
- Nationality
- American
- Occupations
- Guitarist, Record producer, Label founder
- Era
- Rock and Roll
- Born
- 1923 Reviewed
- Died
- 2004 Reviewed
- Tags
- American, Rock and Roll, Guitarist, Record producer, Label founder
- Themes
- Arts and Culture, Global History