sister rosetta tharpe
hen most people think of the founder of rock’n’roll, chances are they’re not thinking about a queer black woman born in 1915 in Arkansas. Raised in a family of cotton pickers, religious singers and evangelists, Sister Rosetta Tharpe (then Rosetta Nubin) picked up the guitar as a child and soon began touring and performing spiritual music with her mum. From there, Tharpe continued to grow and explore musically, eventually developing her signature style, blending gospel with jazz and blues. But it’s Tharpe’s distinctive voice and heavy distortion on her electric guitar that tie it all together. This was still the 1930s, though, and a black female guitarist was far from common. While Tharpe’s roots were in gospel and the church, her lyrics
