Consumer Guide Album

Millie Jackson: On the Soul Country Side [Kent, 2014]
A Georgia sharecropper's daughter who'll turn 80 in June and whose sole marriage lasted eight months, Jackson grew up in Newark, which like her thick power drawl may not strike newcomers as very country. But her specialty in marriage-cum-cheating songs cuts into their surprise factor even on the Kris Kristofferson copyright "Anybody That Don't Like Millie Jackson" (initially "Hank Williams") which is topped off on this belated best-of, her second, by a climactic challenge called "Black Bitch Crazy" (initially. "Redneck Crazy"). I listen carefully to marriage songs myself, including plenty with limited redeeming romantic value, which here means right down to the revenge fantasy "The angel in your arms this morning/Is gonna be the devil in someone else's arms tonight." But these lyrics do many different things with marital tropes, most of which Jackson is shrewd enough to exploit whether they reflect her own experience or make shit up. A-