The grande dame of rock: Rosetta Thorpe, March 20, 1915 – October 9, 1973

As someone who had mastered the guitar by age six, Sister Rosetta Tharpe once claimed: “No man can play like me. I play better than a man.” As her string of influential songs from a long, fruitful career would prove, this was no empty braggadocio by one of the first women to play electric guitar.

Considered a child prodigy in Cotton Plant, Ark., Tharpe would sing and play guitar alongside her mother, Katie Bell Nubin, in gospel concerts all around the South and joined her mother in performing at church conventions as part of an evangelical troupe by 1921.

Later after a move to Chicago and then to New York, Tharpe’s talent earned her a stint with Lucky Millander’s Orchestra and a spot at the famed Cotton Club. With the orchestra, Tharpe played gospel and secular songs, and in 1938, at 23, she recorded her first sides, including “That’s All” and “Rock Me,” which would become her first hit.

Her unique blend of spiritual lyrics, fluid guitar licks and rhythmic accompaniment made her a one-of-a-kind innovator of pop gospel and a precursor to the rock and roll sound. Infusing energy and elan into her songs — her powerful mezzo-soprano voice didn’t hurt, either — she was also among the pioneers in using distortion on her electric guitar, laying the groundwork for electric blues and, ultimately, rock.

In time, many would point to Tharpe, who would be labeled the “Godmother of Rock and Roll,” as a resounding influence. Listen to her song “This Train,” and you can hear Little Walter’s 1955 number-one R&B hit “My Babe.” Listen to the opening of “The Lord Followed Me,” and you can hear pretty much every riff Chuck Berry ever played, all at once. Tharpe helped shape the sound of the next generation, which included upstarts like Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins, and she did it her own way — that is, playing like a girl.

In a long overdue honor, Tharpe was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018.

Originally published in The Weekly Challenger.