Up Above My Head

From a tribute to Sister Rosetta Tharpe—Ruthie Foster and Friends performing "Up Above My Head".

This Little Light of Mine

For the 101st anniversary of Sister Rosetta Tharpe's birth, here she is performing "This Little Light of Mine".

That's All

Sister Rosette Tharpe and Band performing "That's All".

Jesus Is Mine

From a 1964 concert in Paris, Sister Rosetta Tharpe performing "Jesus Is Mine".

Happy 100th Birthday Sister Rosetta

Sister Rosetta Tharpe would have turned 100 two days ago on March 20. So, even though I am a little late, here is her performance of "Didn't It Rain" at a Manchester, England railway station in 1964. Even though it was in fact raining, it looks like this may have been one of the funnest concerts of all time.

Up Above My Head

From 1965, Sister Rosetta Tharpe performs a rather restrained version of "Up Above My Head".

Sister Rosetta

Brought to you by Fenamint Laxatives, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, The Knights of Washington DC and Julius & Margie Cheeks get down with some gospel music.  Good Lord, I have to wonder if Sister Rosetta and Margie Cheeks ever performed together, but that might be too much to be contained on one stage.

Old Time Religion

Sister Rosette Tharpe with "Old Time Religion".

Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Three songs from Sister Rosetta:  "He's Mine", "Precious Memories" and "This Train"

Up Above My Head

I posted a version of Ruthie Foster performing Sister Rosetta's Up Above My Head a couple years back.  It worth seeing again, so here is a newer version. Speaking of Ruthie Foster, don't miss her unique version of Oh, Susanna here.
 

Jazzy Gospel

Gospel music comes in many flavors, but there is not a lot that falls on the jazz side. As an exception, here is the Godmother of Rock 'n Roll, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, performing a couple gospel songs with a jazz band in 1961.  Included here are the songs "That's All", "Trouble In Mind" and "Down by the Riverside".

In the Garden

Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Delois Barrett Campbell and Professor Alfred Miller performing "In the Garden".

I found this video a couple days ago, and decided to use it for today's post. Then this morning I heard an interview with Marilynne Robinson about her new book, When I Was a Child I Read Books. She talks about this very song. Though I have heard this song many times, her interview was the first time I realized that the song was written from the perspective of Mary Magdalene.

Christmas 2010

"A Creole Christmas" at the Preservation Hall.



Irma Thomas - "Go Tell it on the Mountain"



Sister Rosetta Tharpe - "Silent Night"




If you like this, try these previous posts:

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band - January 22, 2010

Irma Thomas - February 22, 2010

Rock & Roll Turns 65/Sister Rosetta Tharpe - September 17, 2009

Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Pt. 3

My motto is you can never have to many Sister Rosetta Tharpe videos. I have done one post with her videos, and another post of covers of songs she sang. Someone has recently posted two very good Sister Rosetta videos from a 1964 French TV show.

Here is "Up Above My Head".



Here she performs "Two Little Fishes & Five Loaves of Bread". This song is followed by a performance by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee of "I'm a Stranger Here, Just Blowed in Your Town". They appeared with Woodie Guthrie in a previous post.

Up Above My Head/Sister Rosetta Pt. 2

Sister Rosetta Tharpe deserves more than one post, so here are a couple videos by other performers that relate to her.

First here is Ruthie Foster's cover of "Up Above My Head".



Here are two women who can go toe to toe with Sister Rosetta when it comes to Flamboyance. Dolly Parton and Patti Labelle's version of "Up Above My Head".



Alison Krauss and Robert Plant recorded the song "Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us" on their recent album Raising Sand. Here is a video of them performing the song.

Rock & Roll Turns 65/Sister Rosetta Tharpe

There is endless debate over which recording should be considered the first rock & roll song. On the list of candidates. usually the earliest one is Sister Rosetta Tharpe's "Strange Thing Happening Everyday". That song was recorded in September 1944. So if you accept this as the first rock & roll song, rock & roll is now 65 years old.

There seems to be no video of Sister Rosetta performing this song, but here is the audio. I believe that this audio is from the 1944 recording, but I am not sure.




Considering what a dynamic performer Sister Rosetta was, I have to include some other videos of her performing. These videos would have been from the late 50's or early 60's, but she was still going strong. Here is "Up Above My Head". Let's do that again.



You can't get anymore rock & roll than this performance of "Down by the Riverside".






This performance of "Didn't It Rain" has my all time favorite entrance by any performer.