18 January 2011

Sister Rosetta Tharpe



I have just finished watching a BBC documentary about Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Amazing voice, excellent guitarist - a woman with more feeling in one syllable than most singers can put into a song. Why on earth have I never heard of her?

8 comments:

CalumCarr said...

I've recorded the prog. Was thinking about putting prog on YouTube.

Thanks for reminding me.

CalumCarr said...

I'll do what I can.

jams o donnell said...

It would be great if you could. This vid had posts saying that they had not heard of her until the doc. Hurray for the BBC!

Anonymous said...

The guitar playing is hot, not sure about the frock though, and the folks in the background 'aint got much jazz. One cool Momma on the geeetar though.

JD said...

saw her in the sixties (I am very old) when she toured here with The American Folk Blues Show alongside Sonny Terry&Brownie McGhee, Rev. Gary Davis, Muddy Waters and lots more.... including one whose name I can't recall who played a nine string guitar - which he explained, jokingly, was a 12 string guitar with three strings missing.
unforgettable evening of electrifying music......
even in my dotage I can still remember it vividly
:)

jams o donnell said...

WOW JD that must have been an utter treat. If it weren't fro Sister Rosetta and all the others w would not have had so many great rock bands.

Anonymous said...

"Why on earth have I never heard of her?"
Probably you are too young.
I've heard a live-album by her (and Marie Knight) in the late fifties and still search for it since years. In vain.
-kdm (Berlin)

jams o donnell said...

That is probably true kdm. Still plenty of contemporaries are familiar to me.

I hope you find a version of the album