'SHE ROCKED HARDER THAN A MAN AND THAT WAS INSPIRING."

She played on songs that inspired the 60s wave of rock’n’roll. By the 80s she was cleaning offices and houses, and performing at a food court for tips. Then in the 90s a serendipitous series of steps led to her making her first record. Suddenly this woman from rural Georgia, whose ferocious guitar chops had always been in service to others, was up front.

Off stage she could have been your friendly, church-going southern grandma; on stage Beverly ‘Guitar’ Watkins had more in common with Jimi Hendrix and Pete Townshend. Screaming, top-of-the-neck wails, full-throttle riff assaults, soloing with the guitar round the back of her head… No wonder her former