WORDS / STEPHEN KOCH
ILLUSTRATION / CHRYSTAL SEAWOOD

Arkansawyer Rosetta Tharpe was born on March 20, 1915, in Cotton Plant in Woodruff County. Her amazing guitar skills and singing voice first gained attention in the Pentecostal Christian Church Of God In Christ (C.O.G.I.C.) church in which she was raised. She signed to Decca Records in 1938, and began to appeal to wider, more secular audiences – and she even recorded secular music, much to the chagrin of the church.

Among her secular pursuits, Tharpe performed and recorded with Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, and Decca labelmates Louis Jordan of Brinkley and Lucky Millinder and His Orchestra. With Millinder, Tharpe recorded the decidedly non-gospel songs “I Want A Tall Skinny Papa” and “Shout, Sister, Shout,” and even appeared in videos for them.

“She was a remarkable woman for daring to make her music in the way that she wanted to make it,” Tharpe’s biographer Gayle Wald says. Wald’s “Shout Sister Shout: The Untold Story of Rock ‘n’ Roll Trailblazer Sister Rosetta Tharpe,” was published in 2007. “She dared to defy the conventions of the community that nourished her musical talent.” As a woman playing raucous electric gospel guitar for visual as well as aural impact, Wald says Tharpe was unparalleled. “[She] was an unclassifiable figure. Where are the female guitarists that have carried on her legacy? … I don’t know that the legacy exists,” she said. “She may be just a one-of-a-kind performer.”

Tharpe died October 9, 1973, at age 58 of complications from diabetes and is buried in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Along the way, she influenced such performers as Isaac Hayes, Elvis Presley, Etta James, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bob Dylan, Odetta and fellow Arkansawyers Johnny Cash and Sleepy LaBeef, while her blazing guitar and flamboyant moves are echoed by the likes of Jimmy Page and Pete Townsend. She was featured on a U.S. postage stamp in 1998.

So why isn’t she in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Well, she didn’t even receive a proper headstone until 2009. But events in Arkansas to commemorate her centenary this year include a May 8 tribute concert at the Old State House Museum in Little Rock and a radio musical called “Can’t Sit Down,” airing on “Arkansongs” affiliates this summer. But it’s not enough. Sign the petition to induct Rosetta Tharpe into the Rock Hall here: http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/put-sister-rosetta-tharpe.

Arkansawyer Stephen Koch is a musician, award-winning reporter and editor, and author of Louis Jordan: Son of Arkansas, Father of R&B.

Koch’s weekly “Arkansongs” program is syndicated on National Public Radio affiliates across the state.

Tags