“Besides the omnipresent Presley, Al Green, Jerry Lee Lewis, Alex Chilton, Jim Dickinson, Cordell Jackson, the late, great James Carr, Phineas Newborn Jr., Willie Mitchell, Isaac Hayes, Booker T & the MGs, Stax Records, and Sam Phillips and Sun Records all rose to fame in the Memphis region.”
Although that list by a Chicago Sun-Times travel writer is hardly complete, it is representative of the way the rest of the world looks upon us. And whose name is that smack- dab in the middle of those luminaries? That’s right: Cordell Jackson, the “rock-and-roll granny” whose death last week at the age of 81 gave us our most recent case of the blues. Her raucous guitar and robust presence were yet another gift to the world that we, as Memphians, are proud to undersign.
