This being Sunday, I thought it was time for some great gospel music in the company of the legendary Sister Rosetta Tharpe. She was an American singer/songwriter, guitarist, and recording artist. She attained popularity in the 1930s and 1940s with her gospel recordings, characterized by a unique mixture of spiritual lyrics and rhythmic accompaniment that was a precursor of rock and roll. She was the first great recording star of gospel music and among the first gospel musicians to appeal torhythm and blues and rock-and-roll audiences, later being referred to as “the original soul sister” and “the Godmother of rock and roll”. She influenced many of the early rock-and-roll musicians.
Tharpe was a pioneer in her guitar technique; she was among the first popular recording artists to use heavy distortion on her electric guitar. Her guitar playing technique had a profound influence on the development of the blues in Britain in the 1960s; in particular a European tour with Muddy Waters in 1964 with a stop in Manchester on 7 May. It is from this concert that today’s video is taken. The quality of the recording may not be the sharpest but the music is heavenly and sung without the aid of a microphone. The irony of singing ‘Didn’t It Rain’ on a wet railway platform in Manchester is palable.
