Cordell Jackson (née Miller; July 15, 1923 – October 14, 2004) was an American guitarist thought to be the first woman to produce, engineer, arrange and promote music on her own rock and roll music label.
Early life
She was born Cordell Miller in Pontotoc, Mississippi, where her father led a string band, the Pontotoc Ridge Runners. As a child she learned guitar, piano, harmonica and double bass, and soon began performing in her father's band and on radio in Tupelo. After installing recording equipment in her home in 1947, she recorded demo records for Sam Phillips before he set up Sun Records. Unable to break into the Sun label's stable of male artists, she received the advice and assistance of RCA Records' Chet Atkins in forming this new label to release her music. She began releasing and promoting on the label singles she recorded in her home studio, serving as engineer, producer and arranger. The artists recorded included her and a small family of early rock and roll, rockabilly, and country music performers she recruited from several Southern states, such as Allen Page, Earl Patterson, and Johnny Tate. Jackson then began playing occasional shows in the 1980s with her signature red Hagstrom electric guitar in Memphis, Hoboken, New York, and Chicago nightclubs. Jackson also produced a contemporary Christian radio show, Let's Keep the Family Together America. Her marketing of her own video singles, as opposed to marketing them in multiple-song video collections, is reputed to be another first in her innovative lifetime of doing things her own way, bucking the trends of standard industry practice.
Jackson's only solo full-length album to date, Cordell Jackson — Live in Chicago was released by Pravda Records in 1995.
Discography
Singles
;Cordell Jackson
- "Rock And Roll Christmas" / "Beboppers' Christmas" - Moon Records G80W-6407/8 - (1956)
;Cordell Jackson and her Guitar
- "Football Widow" / "I'm at Home Again (In the Memories of My Mind)" Moon Records EP-311 - (1983)
- "Rockin' Rollin' Eyes" / "Memphis Drag" - Sympathy for the Record Industry SFTRI 50 - (1990)
EPs
;Cordell Jackson
- The Split - Moon Records MR 333 - (1980s)
;Various artists compilations
- The 50s Rock On The Moon of Memphis, Tennessee + an Oddity - Moon Records LP-MR 3010 - (1979)