How Evangelist and Guitar Pioneer Sister Rosetta Tharpe Turned Her Rock of Ages into Rock N Roll

Born on today in 1915, Rosetta Tharpe revolutionized the sound of electrical guitar through the use of distortion along with her distinctive phrasing & choosing, inspiring Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Johnny Money & Elvis Presley

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson, GBN Editor-in-Chief

Born in 1915 in Cotton Plant, Arkansas to musical dad and mom who additionally labored as cotton pickers, Tharpe was a musical prodigy who’s reported to have picked up a guitar at 4 and commenced acting at age six along with her mom, Katie Bell Nubin, a touring evangelist and mandolin participant for the Church of God in Christ.

Although strictly a gospel performer on the outset, by early maturity, Tharpe began mixing religious lyrics with the secular sounds of the time, bringing gospel music into nightclubs, whereas introducing components of rhythm and blues to church audiences.

At 23, Tharpe began recording her genre-bending sound for Decca Data, leading to hits similar to “Rock Me” and “That’s All”. Tharpe was employed by Fortunate Millinder in 1941 to sing and play together with his swing band, and toured with them for years performing much more worldly materials, together with uptempo dance numbers similar to “I Need A Tall Skinny Papa”.

Although thought-about transgressive and controversial on the time, inflicting an uproar among the many gospel group, this boundary-crossing by Tharpe in the end cemented her legacy as “Godmother of Rock and Roll.”

Although it was uncommon for ladies to play guitar within the Thirties and Nineteen Forties, Tharpe was among the many first well-liked recording artists to make use of heavy distortion on her electrical guitar, and her choosing approach and phrasing influenced numerous artists who adopted, together with Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, and Johnny Money.

Little Richard cited Tharpe as one in every of his main influences, and Chuck Berry as soon as mentioned his profession was “one lengthy Rosetta Tharpe impression.”

While you hear Tharpe-penned songs like “That’s All”, “This Prepare”, “I Need To Reside So God Can Use Me” or her covers of gospel tunes like “Simply A Nearer Stroll With Thee”, “Valuable Lord, Maintain My Hand”, “I Need Jesus To Stroll Round My Bedside”or “Unusual Issues Taking place Each Day”, you recognize neither Richard nor Berry have been exaggerating.

Tharpe synthesized blues, hokum, hillbilly, gospel and swing music into her personal rocking model of strumming, bending, choosing and vocalizing.

Tharpe’s inclusion on the brief-but-innovative observe “Smoke Hour ⭐️ Willie Nelson” on Beyoncé’s Grammy-winning LP Cowboy Carter (2024) impressed me to revisit Tharpe’s foundational, liminal music final yr through The Decca Singles, Volumes 1-5compilation collection (streaming on Spotify and Apple Music), which covers her early recordings plus her large band, Trio and her later work.

“Smoke Hour ⭐️ Willie Nelson” contains a radio dial switching between yodeling, blues, gospel & 50s rock n roll till we land on Okay-N-T-R-Y station DJ Willie Nelson teeing up Beyoncé’s “Texas Maintain ‘Em” into this lineage. The lone feminine voice heard among the many dial turns? Tharpe singing her iconic model of “Down By The Riverside”.

Tharpe was identified for her exuberant performances (secular & non-secular) & usually her solely accompaniment was her personal dynamic guitar enjoying.

A private Tharpe favourite is “Didn’t It Rain”), the place she’s backed by the Sam Value Trio, trades vocals with frequent collaborator Marie Knight and rips an electrifying guitar solo – this tune goes so onerous and remains to be so infectious, I can’t assist myself from bopping alongside each time I hear it.

Beneath is video of her well-known stay 1966 efficiency of it in France:

Tharpe was lastly inducted into the Rock n Roll Corridor of Fame in 2018, and in 2024 Gibson Guitars debuted the Rosetta Tharpe Assortment of merchandise in tribute to her (together with a miniature reproduction of the long-lasting 1961 Les Paul she used to play, however she remains to be not well-known sufficient for her very important contributions to American music, even with the Cowboy Carter hat tip.

To study extra about Tharpe, take a look at the 2008 biography Shout, Sister, Shout: The Untold Story of Rock-And-Roll Trailblazer Sister Rosetta Tharpe by Gayle Wald, watch the 2011 documentary The Godmother of Rock and Roll – Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Gibson Guitars-produced brief documentary Shout, Sister, Shout: Sister Rosetta Tharpe, in addition to efficiency clips of her out there on YouTube.

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