Every month, the Maplewood-based charitable organization Rent Party raises funds for local food pantries by hosting a concert at The Woodland in Maplewood. On Friday, December 9, the party got extra special, with rock ‘n’ roll legend Joan Jett joining the crowd to cheer on Queen of Rockabilly Wanda Jackson.
We’ll let Rent Party’s Chris Dickson tell it:
What we’re about to say, we don’t take lightly — and we’ve given it some thought. Here goes: Last night’s Wanda Jackson show might have been the best Rent Party show EVER.
There, we said it.
Let’s start at the beginning. Li’l Mo & The Monicats opened the evening with just a killer set of countrified rockabilly white lightening. If you’ve never seen these cats, you need to fix that. Great, great band. Wonderful tunes.
But things got better.
Legendary rocker Joan Jett was in the house! Joan is producing Wanda’s next record. She came to enjoy the show, but we put her to work passing the bucket to help the cause. We cannot say enough about what a good sport she was and how genuinely gracious she was, taking time to take pictures and chat with folks. 
<3 Joan Jett.
Next up: The Lustre Kings. Wanda’s backing band treated us to a classic set. Wonderful showmen and just a nice bunch of guys!
And then, The Undisputed Queen of Rockabilly — Miss Wanda Jackson. As we’ve said before, Wanda is a bona fide rock ‘n’ roll treasure and we think, to a person, everyone in the room knew they were seeing something very, very special. And she brought the goods, delivering all her classics and a handful of newer tunes. The songs were interspersed with stories about her career and her friendship with some guy named Elvis Presley. Wonderful performer and a special woman. God bless, Wanda Jackson.
But if you were there, you knew all of this already. And we thank you for being there. If you weren’t, by all means, check-out the video stream from the show. But next time we tell you that you don’t want to miss a show, you better listen!
Click on photos to enlarge:
