February 1, 2021 - Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Lyles Station Historic Schoolhouse and Museum celebrates Black History month by recognizing different individuals each day who should be better known than they are. Today we are recognizing Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Elvis may have been the King of Rock & Roll, but Sister Rosetta Tharpe was definitely the God-Mother of Rock & Roll.
Showing up on the music scene in the 1930s, she blended gospel music with Delta Blues adding New Orleans Jazz effects to develop what we now know as early Rock & Roll.
Sister Rosetta, born Rosetta Nubin in 1915, was recognized as a child musical prodigy by the time she was four. Not content with an acoustic guitar during a time when female guitarists were rarely seen, she took on the electric guitar and became known as a pioneer in the use of heavy distortion, before Jimi Hendrix was even born.
Her first single, “Rock Me,” recorded when she was 23 in 1938, propelled gospel-pop into the forefront of music. Her most famous song, “Strange Things Happening Every Day” has been covered by icons such as Johnny Cash. The woman who fused spiritual music with sexy secular led the way to Rock and Roll.
This daughter of cotton pickers from Arkansas influenced the rise of British Blues in the 60s, even touring with Muddy Waters. We can hear her musical influence in music greats such as Elvis, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Johnny Cash, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, Keith Richards, Bonnie Raitt, Isaac Hayes, and even Meat Loaf, Karen Carpenter, and Neal Sedaka credit her with influencing their style.
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Sister Rosetta toured with big names such as Duke Ellington and began performing for mixed audiences with the all-white Jordanaires. Despite her fame as a headliner, when she toured, the segregated restaurants and hotels of the time refused to admit her, forcing her to sleep on tour buses and having to pick up her food from the back of restaurants.
Although Tharpe has never been awarded the recognition she deserves for her contributions to music, she was finally elected in 2017, to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an Early Influence.
Belcher, Craig. “Her Gospel Truth.” Richmondmagazine.com, Richmondmag, 9 Apr. 2018, richmondmagazin....
Diaz-Hurtado, Jessica. “Forebears: Sister Rosetta Tharpe, The Godmother Of Rock 'N' Roll.” NPR, NPR, 24 Aug. 2017, www.npr.org/.......
The Woman Who Invented Rock and Roll, TH-cam, 6 Feb. 2020, • The Woman who Invented... .