Following the well-received Bear Family Records® vinyl reissue of the Savoy classic Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Precious Memories, BAF18055, our team offers a CD jam-packed with rocking, soul-shaking gospel music: Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Rock Me. The compilation focuses on up-tempo numbers featuring Rosetta’s fierce guitar acrobatics, and on the variety of musical styles she delivered with ease and authority from the 1940s to the 1960s.
You know the old media-made competition of the Beatles and the Stones: Sister Rosetta Tharpe experienced the same thing with Mahalia Jackson. Whereas Jackson was very traditional and angelic, Broadway raised Tharpe trailblazed her way through the conservative 1950s by employing every style the popular music of the day offered.
Included in this set are songs backed by country guitar legend Grady Martin, a duet with crossover country crooner Red Foley, and a duet with her long-time partner and protégé Marie Knight. Madame Knight is also featured with her rhumba version of “Calvary,” backed by Sister Rosetta on guitar. You have outright Pentecostal stomps such as “On My Way Now (Got On My Travelin’ Shoes),” alongside the calypso of “Let’s Be Happy” (complete with a faux Caribbean accent). Also included are her hits, “This Train,” “That’s All,” “Rock Me,” and “Didn’t It Rain.” The outstanding “Strange Things Happening Every Day” was one of Carl Perkins’ all-time favorites and heavily influenced his picking. The song had a lasting impact on all the aspiring young dudes like Presley, Cash, and Jerry Lee.
Trailing over all tracks included is Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s ferocious guitar - equally powerful as the trumpets that brought down the walls of Jericho. Whether she played a National Triolian at John Hammond’s legendary show From Spirituals to Swing at Carnegie Hall in 1938, or a distorted Gibson Les Paul during her 1960 tour of Europe, her passionate delivery produced one of the wildest guitar sounds of the era. And yes, her powerful, soul-cleansing voice lifts you up throughout the 74 Minutes of Heavenly Joy on BCD17665 Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Rock Me.
The release includes liner notes from Roland Heinrich Rumtreiber and a foreword by Scottish musician and book author Saskia Holling.
1. 99 1/2 Won’t Do
2. Rock Me
3. Look Away in the Heavenly Land
4. All Alone
5. Let It Shine
6. Can’t Do Wrong and Get By
7. Calvary (Mary Knight)
8. What is the Soul of a Man?
9. That’s All
10. Have a Little Talk with Jesus
11. Jesus is Here to Stay
12. He’s the Lilly of the Valley
13. Didn’t It Rain
14. I Can’t Sit Down
15. In the Garden
16. Stand the Storm
17. The Natural Facts
18. Let’s Be Happy
19. Strange Things Happening Every Day
20. Let’s Go On
21. Smile It Through
22. Two Little Fishes, Five Loaves of Bread
23. Up Above My Head
24. I Can’t Sit Down (Marie and Rex)
25. This Train
26. God is Wonderful
27. On My Way (Got on My Travelin’ Shoes)
28. Bring Back Those Happy Days
29. That’s All