Friday: 9:45 p.m. Railroad; Saturday: 4 p.m. Railroad, 8 p.m. Kenduskeag; Sunday: 3 p.m. Kenduskeag

Wanda Jackson is finally getting the recognition she deserves as “the Queen of Rockabilly.” During her long career, which now spans half a century, she has had numerous Top 40 hits and two Grammy nominations and has received a host of awards. Most recently, she was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, and made the final ballot last year for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. There has been a concerted push for her induction by avid fans including Elvis Costello, who said, “If [the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame] is going to have any meaning … it’s got to have Wanda in it.”

She has been named a 2005 National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellow, the nation’s highest honor for traditional artists, and will receive the award in Washington, D.C., this fall.

As a guitarist, singer and songwriter, 67-year-old Wanda Jackson excels at several musical genres, including country and gospel, but her enduring fame comes from her contributions to rockabilly.

Rockabilly is a hybrid of American vernacular styles, blending blues, early forms of country music and gospel (from both black and white traditions) to form a distinctive sound that, along with rhythm and blues, gave birth to rock ‘n’ roll. Jackson’s importance to American music includes not just her central place as a star of rockabilly and early rock ‘n’ roll, but also her unique position as an outstanding female musician in a genre dominated by men. Not only was she a trailblazer for women in early rock ‘n’ roll, she also challenged racial segregation by touring with an integrated band through the South in the late 1950s.

Born in 1937 in Oklahoma, Jackson spent her early years in California. Her father, a country singer, introduced her to the greats of old-time country music and bought her a guitar when she was 6. Her mother later recalled, “Wanda wasn’t like other children after the guitar came into her life.” She also performed regularly as a singer in her church’s gospel choir.

After the family returned to Oklahoma, 15-year-old Wanda won a local talent contest and was offered a daily show on Oklahoma City radio station KLPR, where she performed country music.

In 1954, Hank Thompson of the Brazos Valley Boys heard her broadcast and asked her to join the band. This led to a hit single with bandleader Billy Gray, “You Can’t Have My Love,” a solo contract with Decca Records, and touring gigs culminating in a series of performances in 1955 and 1956, right after her high school graduation, with an up-and-comer named Elvis Presley. Elvis encouraged her to apply her talents to rockabilly.

With the encouragement of her father and glamorous outfits designed by her mom, Jackson cranked up her guitar and had big rockabilly hits with songs such as “Let’s Have a Party,” “Fujiyama Mama” and her own compositions such as “Mean, Mean Man.” She began writing her own songs “mostly out of necessity,” she says, “because I was having trouble finding anything written from a girl’s perspective that I wanted to sing.”

In the early 1960s, Jackson’s record label encouraged her to focus more on country music, as interest in rockabilly – and comfort with her outspoken and sexy attitude – declined. In 1971, Jackson and her husband, manager Wendell Goodman, rededicated themselves to their Christian faith, and she began to record gospel music. Yet again, however, record labels wanted to pigeonhole her, refusing to let her record both gospel and country at the same time.

By the 1980s, she struck an interesting balance, working as a gospel artist in the United States while performing all the styles in her repertoire in Europe, where enthusiasm for rockabilly remained high.

In 1995, alternative country singer Rosie Flores asked Jackson, her idol, to perform on her album “Rockabilly Filly,” and the two toured the U.S. together. Jackson found a wildly enthusiastic reception among both new converts and those who, like Flores, had loved her music for years.

When it became clear how thrilled American audiences were to rediscover Jackson, her career took another great leap. With the release of her first U.S. album in two decades, 2003’s widely acclaimed “Heart Trouble” (CMH Records), with guest musicians such as Jackson devotees Flores, Elvis Costello, the Cramps and Dave Alvin, and a 2004 tribute album, “Hard-Headed Woman: A Celebration of Wanda Jackson” (Bloodshot Records), Jackson has reclaimed her rightful position as the Queen of Rockabilly.