Sister Rosetta Tharpe

**This Sister Rosetta Tharpe stamp is a part of the Legends of American Music series. Make sure to check out my hub page dedicated to this long-running and important project of the United States Postal Service.

The Legends of American Music stamp series was an important project for many reasons. In addition to celebrating truly original art forms, it also highlighted the contributions of many women and people of color. In fact, the R&B singer Dinah Washington became the first Black woman on a U. S. postage stamp in 1993 as part of the Legends series. The series would also include Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, Ma Rainey, Mahalia Jackson, and many others.

This wonderful celebration of talented Black women mostly featured singers. However, among them was the incredible gospel sing and guitarist Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Her remarkable electric guitar solos would inspire a generation of subsequent rock guitarists. Yet, she has rarely received the recognition she deserves. Her appearance on a postage stamp is important to righting that wrong.

Before reading anything else, if you have not heard Sister Rosetta Tharpe you should listen to this now:

Rosetta Nubin was born in 1915 in Cotton Plant, Arkansas. She grew up surrounded by music and at the age of four began to sing and play guitar. Her mother was also a singer and mandolin player and very involved with her Pentecostal church. Rosetta grew up steeped in Black church music. At the age of 23, Tharpe recorded four gospel sides, the first gospel songs produced by Decca. They became hits and Rosetta was became one of the first commercially successful gospel artists.

This propelled her to New York where she would play at the famed Cotton Club in Harlem, and on stage at Carnegie Hall in John Hammond’s “Spirituals to Swing” concert in late 1938. Tharpe was one of only two gospel musicians to record music for troops overseas during World War II. Her popularity continued through the 1940s with the hit “Down By the Riverside” in 1944. The Library of Congress chose the song for inclusion in the National Recording Registry in 2004. The next year, her song “Strange Things Happening Every Day” was the first gospel song to become a crossover hit on the R&B charts (rising to number 2). It has been called one of the earliest rock & roll songs.

Beginning in 1946, Tharpe partnered with Marie Knight on the Gospel circuit and recorded further hits such as “Up Above My Head,” and “Gospel Train.” The two women were probably a couple, though unable to acknowledge it at the time and in their religious circles. An excellent article about Sister Rosetta Tharpe can be read here.

Tharpe’s Guitar Playing

Tharpe’s use of the electric guitar was revolutionary. She was one of the first people to use heavy distortion, which would inspire both Chicago blues players and later rock musicians. A tour to England in 1964 with Muddy Waters, and a televised appearance in the UK, was an important moment in music history. That single performance was an inspiration to many British musicians including Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Keith Richards. Tharpe died of a stroke in 1973, long before she received the credit she deserved for her influence on many younger musicians. In 2017, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inducted Tharpe as an Early Influencer.

The Stamp

The postage stamp was one of four in honor of the gospel singers Clara Ward, Mahalia Jackson, Roberta Martin, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Howard Paine of Delaplane, Virginia was the designer and Gary Kelly of Cedar Falls, Iowa was the illustrator. The stamps were issued on July 15, 1998 in New Orleans, Louisiana.