Archive On 4: Sister Blues

ARCHIVE ON 4: SISTER BLUES (320kbs-m4a/131mb/57mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 10th August 2024

To mark the sixty-year anniversary of the American's seminal 1964 performance at a Manchester train station for Granada TV, Joan Armatrading explores the life and music of blues trailblazer Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

As an influence to Little Richard, Elvis and Chuck Berry, the legacy of the so-called 'Godmother of Rock and Roll' is far-reaching. Joan talks to surviving members of Sister Rosetta's family, contemporaries of the '64 UK tour, modern-day female singer songwriters from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean as well as devotees from across the music and entertainment world to explore the remarkable impact of her pioneering work. Drawing on archive and unique recordings from Sister Rosetta's back catalogue, Joan brings focus to a foundational figure whose contribution has too often been overlooked.

Producer and Writer: Ben Wyatt
Sound Editor: Rich Evans
Original music composition: Christopher Fletcher
A Comuniqé production for BBC Radio 4

Shout Sister Shout: The Sister Rosetta Tharpe Story

SHOUT SISTER SHOUT: THE SISTER ROSETTA THARPE STORY (320kbs-m4a/138mb/60mins)

BBC Radio 6 Music broadcast: 26th March 2017

Stuart Braithwaite of Mogwai slects this documentary in which Ruby Turner tells the extraordinary story of the guitar-playing gospel singer, Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

Rosetta was one of the most innovative gospel musicians of her time. In her music you can hear blues, R & B and rock 'n' roll and she influenced the likes of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard.

When she married, 20,000 people attended the wedding in a baseball stadium, yet when she died she was buried in an unmarked grave.

Ruby Turner charts her rise to fame and popularity and subsequent demise in a documentary that was first broadcast on Radio 2.