That time forgotten rockabilly guitar hero Cordell Jackson dueled with Brian Setzer – in a Budweiser commercial

A name that rarely comes up in lists of 21st century rockabilly electric guitar greats is Cordell Jackson, a Mississippi native who blazed a trail with hot rod riffing, positively blistering tone, and a damn-the-torpedoes, DIY attitude in the face of sexism.

In the late '50s, Jackson – ignored by Sun Records' Sam Phillips due to her gender – started her own record label, producing sessions for others, and writing, recording, and releasing the occasional tune under her own name.

It wasn't until the late '80s, though, that Jackson – now well into her '60s – began gigging, where audiences bemused by her grandmotherly appearance were quickly left slack-jawed by the rawness and sheer aggression of her playing, fitting right in in the punk-friendly rock clubs she plied her trade in.

Though she, sadly, never received a great deal of recognition before her death in 2004, Jackson did have a brief, bizarre moment in the spotlight courtesy of – of all things – a Budweiser commercial.

Aired in the early '90s, the 30-second spot paired Jackson with one of rockabilly's premier living players, Brian Setzer. Sound-checking for a fictional show, Setzer is interrupted by Jackson from the cheap seats. “Crunch that last chord! I'll show ya,” she shouts.

Seated in a rocking chair (befitting of her reputation as a sort of “rock 'n' roll granny”) Jackson takes Setzer on. The ad's subsequent, Eddie Van Halen-esque backing track is obviously exaggerated, but it nonetheless points to Jackson's freewheeling, attitude-minded playing (“I've found that the faster I play, the more accurate I become,” she said in a 1990 interview .)

“You're pretty good!” Jackson says to Setzer with a mischievous smile. “Not!”

Aside from the commercial, one of Jackson's breakout performances came a few years earlier, in 1988, on the WFMU radio show The Hound .

Jim Marshall, the show's host, described Jackson's performance as “some of the most vicious, nasty rock ’n’ roll guitar I’ve ever heard in my life.”