Recommendations of the Editorial team
The 250 best guitarists of all time – 6th place: Sister Rosetta Tharpe
As a sexually unbound black woman who catapulted the gospel music into the mainstream, Sister Rosetta Tharpe broke with numerous taboos. Before the rock’n’roll existed, she practically invented the concept of the guitar hero. Bob Dylan described her as a “mighty force of nature. A guitar playing, singing evangelist”.
Inspired by her mother’s mandolin game, Tharpe, born in Arkansas, who moved to Chicago with her family, learned to play guitar in kindergarten age. When she started taking records in the 1930s, she already mastered it. You pluck her and her Arpeggios in “Strange Things Happening Every Day” from 1945 matched the lively boogie-woogie of the song and her own lively vocals. And she was able to unleash a whole gush of tones during a solo in the traditional gospel piece “Up Above My Head”.
In 1964 Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Jeff Beck to a train station in Manchester, England. Just to see Tharpe on a folk, blues and gospel special spectrum on TV.
Before the rock’n’roll existed, she practically invented the concept of the guitar hero
On this day, her exuberant version of the spiritual “Didn’t It Rain” put both her gospel-lung force roots and her effortless way of making her guitar sing. Tharpe died in 2013. But it will continue to be honored. Brittany Howard has added Tharpe to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as an early influence. Which shows how much a new generation Tharpe owes one or three debuts.
Key Tracks: “Strange Things Happening Every Day”