Sister Rosetta

Dearest Internet,

I want to dig into some music history.

As a child, I had the immense privilege to be surrounded by music. From an uncle who gave me mixtapes and old 8-tracks, to a grandmother that wanted to teach me how to play heavy metal guitar. Music has always kind of… been there. Most of what I was listening to at the time had a direct line – credited or not – to the blues.

This is how I discovered many of the greats, but it wasn’t until much later in life when I discovered Sister Rosetta Tharpe. To understand those who influenced rock and roll, one must begin at the Godmother herself. Inspired by gospel but driven by secular music, Sister Rosetta’s musical DNA can be found in the likes of Little Richard to Chuck Berry. An unstoppable talent, I fell in love with how this woman could just rip a guitar apart. Note the solo at 1:20 in this video.

I feel it’s important to explore artistic influencers like Sister Rosetta Tharpe for the following reasons:

• She did something different. The music most of us grew up with was spawned from the pioneers of gospel music, blues, and jazz. Sister Rosetta blended traditional gospel music with the genres associated with vice and gave the kids something to stomp to.

• She did this in an industry that did not value women to be guitarists. Having influenced the early titans of rock music it’s a wonder to think of what rock music would sound like without her electric guitar.

• Sister Rosetta Tharpe was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame posthumously in 2018. She sold-out arenas, and was arguably the first rock star, yet it took 48 years after her death for her to be inducted.

Sister Rosetta pushed boundaries, played controversial music, and had a girlfriend. She was a businesswoman who could really shred.