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| Bear Family's new Sister Rosetta Tharpe collection "Rock Me" focuses on her uptempo numbers featuring her superb guitar work. |
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Rock Me - The Revelation Series (CD)
1-CD (Digipak) with 36-page booklet, 29 tracks.
Total playing time approx. 74 minutes
- A compilation of lesser-known greats framed by the hits you all cherish
- All songs feature her ferocious guitar playing supporting the title “Godmother of Rock and Roll”
- Extensive liner notes by Roland Heinrich Rumtreiber and a provocative foreword by Saskia Holling
- Sensitive sound restoration from the best sources
- Highly diversified collection featuring several styles (including duets with Red Foley and Marie Knight)
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.
