Three quarters of the way through this series this week which sees gospel up against Country.
It has proven to be trickier to come up with 20 sisters acts as opposed to 20 brother acts.
However, I was not about to be deterred and this week I have resorted to Sister singular. there were a few to choose from but I couldn’t from the see past the greatest of them all namely Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
She was huge in the 30s and 40s with a unique mixture of spiritual lyrics and electric guitar. She was certainly a huge influence to many female soul singers who came along later, most notably Aretha Franklin who came from a similar religious and gospel background.
I suspect that in their youth Vern and Rex Gosdin were no strangers to the music of Sister Rosetta given that their mother played organ in a Baptist church. In 1968 they released the brilliant Sounds of Goodbye as The Gosdin Brothers prior to teaming up with Gene Clark from the Byrds.
It’s a tough call this week and one I don’t particularly want to make but this video from Chorley station in 1964 swings it in favour of Sister Rosetta
The Gosdin Brothers - Sounds of Goodbye
The Gosdin Brothers - There Must be Someone (I Can Turn To)
Sister Rosetta Tharpe - This Train
Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Up Above My Head (I Hear Music in the Air)
High scoring draw, Sister Rosetta wins the penalty shootout.
ReplyDeleteI’m not familiar with The Gosdin Brothers, good selections CC, I can see the dilemma.
ReplyDeleteThat said, it was always going to be Sister Rosetta.
As Sister Rosetta is just a solitary Sister, it seems unfair to pit her against a group of Brothers. She should have gone up against Brother Beyond. Regardless, she wins.
ReplyDeleteA (very) strong opener from the Brothers but I too am going with Rosetta.
ReplyDelete