wow.
I'd never heard of her. It's got me listening to Marie Knight, too.
- M.Jean 3-17-2008 3:20 am

She's an art goddess. My favourite song of hers is "Shout Sister Shout". I have a bunch of her stuff as mp3's so I'll burn them for you.

Here's another version of "Up Above my Head"



- L.M. 3-17-2008 7:54 am

- L.M. 3-17-2008 8:04 am

From a review of the book "SHOUT, SISTER, SHOUT! The Untold Story of ROCK-AND-ROLL TRAILBLAZER SISTER ROSETTA THARPE" by Gayle Wald

A gospel powerhouse (overshadowed by Mahalia Jackson) and rock n' roll pioneer ("borrowed from" by Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry), Tharpe transcended easy genre categorizations; perhaps one reason why her legacy hasn't been as widely recognized or cherished as other contemporaries. I think she's a fascinating icon of cultural liminality - someone who never fit cleanly in any one category and as a result, was often too ahead of their time to earn the recognition that, in hindsight, we pay people like her, Betty Davis, Joe Bataan, etc. During the talk, Eric Weisbard suggested during the Q&A that perhaps Tharpe could be better understood as a pioneering pop star - not in terms of her musical sound but because she was so literate in different musical styles and this helped propel her to superstardom in both the U.S. and Europe. (Wald talked about Tharpe's third wedding, a huge public event in Washington D.C., held at a baseball stadium. She was doing arena rock before the term became known!)

There were some interesting parallels between her life and that of blues giant Bessie Smith: both were these larger-than-life musical figures, Black women (and bisexual) who ended up being buried in Philadelphia, in an unmarked grave. Wald is starting to organize a campaign to buy a gravestone for Tharpe.

Wow that is an entrance!!! She is fabulous!! Like the missing piece of a musical puzzle !!! Love her!!
- Andrew Harwood (guest) 3-17-2008 9:40 pm

From Trickster:

"...in the 1930s and 1940s no one was bigger or more influential that Sister Rosetta. And only Sister Ernestine Washington could top her for sheer power and spirit. If you care a whit about American music and you're unfamiliar with Sister Rosetta's best work your knowledge is incomplete.

Rosetta's records, though gospel, were juke box hits along the chitlin' circuit where they influenced everyone including Ray Charles (the best thing about Taylor Hackford's cliched Ray Charles biopic—besides Jamie Fox's spectacular performance—is its representation of the chitlin' circuit.). She began performing with her mother along the gospel highway as a teenager in the 1920s. In those noisy, unamplified rooms she developed a clear, bold voice that cut through the din like a great lead trumpet player with a smoking big band. And her guitar playing, Lord Almighty, was one of a kind. Playing in an open tuning she had a set of stock riffs and gestures on which she would rely. But her speedy runs and driving downstroke grinding riffs resounded all the way down to the guitar playing of Chuck Berry.

Rosetta took gospel to places it hadn't gone before (and some said it should never have been)-- sin-filled nightspots like the Cotton Club and Cafe Society--when she began performing as a featured singer with Lucky Millinder's big band in the early 40s. And in so doing she started the ball rolling on the fusion of spiritual and secular music that became rock and roll—especially audible in the tracks she cut in front of the trio of boogie woogie pianist Sam Price."