Friday, March 20, 2026

It is the 20th of March 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

On my list of things I would prefer not to do: become a Christian recording artist and then attempt a crossover career in secular music. Nope! No, thank you- Whether it’s Switchfoot or POD or Amy Grant, I’ve read the stories and know it’s rarely done without criticism.

 

But the story of sacred music and secular pop music is as old as modern pop music. Hence, the woman we might call the “Godmother of Rock and Roll” was the religiously named Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

 

[If the name rings a bell, it’s very hard for me to talk about the hymn “O Little Town of Bethlehem” without getting excited and telling everyone you NEED to hear Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s version on the Hammond B9 organ.

 

So- who was this woman- not a nun, but called “Sister”? She was born Rosetta Nubin on this, the 20th of March in 1915 in Cotton Plant, Arkansas, to Willis Atkins and Katie Bell Nubin. Little is known of her father except that he was likely a cotton picker and may have been an evangelist. One record has him leaving the family as a “traveling evangelist” and never returning. Her mother was known as Mother Katie as an early gospel singer in their local church, one affiliated with the new Pentecostal movement and the Church of God in Christ. Rosetta would tour the Holiness circuit with her mother from the age of four and was billed as a child prodigy, singer, and evangelist.

 

She and her mother left Arkansas during the Great Migration and settled in Chicago at the Roberts Temple on 40th Street in Chicago before becoming a staple on the gospel circuit by the time she was 12. Like Tommy Dorsey, she had an affinity for blues-based music but struggled with the bawdiness of much of the genre and its reputation in the saloons and dance halls.

 

She married Thomas Tharpe around 1934, and Rosetta Nubin became Sister Rosetta Tharpe,” and even after divorcing Thomas in the 1940s, she would keep the name. She would make waves in the 1930s when she decided to take her music from the church to the clubs and bars of New York City, where an African American woman who played the guitar as she did, and with the religious moniker, she became famous fast. Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Elvis counted her as an influence- and her electric guitar (played alongside bluesman Muddy Waters) was an influence on Eric Clapton.

 

She signed with Decca Records and recorded some of Tommy Dorsey’s songs- always trying to walk that line- you might be unsure what “Rock it” is all about- until you hear “rock me in the cradle of your love… then take me to your blessed home” and frankly, you still might be unsure- but this was the line she and Dorsey walked.

 

She toured nationally and recorded singles through World War II- one of her biggest hits, “Strange Things Happen Everyday,” which might not sound religious but very much is, with lyrics like “Jesus is the holy light who drives the darkness away”.

 

Rosetta met Madame Marie Knight, who had toured with Mahalia Jackson and the Sisters, and the two teamed up, and they recorded standard blues records, both to the chagrin of those who wanted something more “Gospel” and while others wanted more of the new guitar-based rhythm and blues. She could have gone gospel, she could have gone rock and roll- but by choosing the Blues, she would suffer the relative obscurity of that genre. Rosetta would remain popular in that niche- and she was a “musician's favorite musician,” but that didn’t make her famous. She would suffer from diabetes and, in 1970, had a leg amputated- she died in 1973 after a stroke.

 

She had something of a Renaissance in the last decade, with her work finally being recognized as she was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018, and a roadside marker in Cotton Plant commemorates her as the “Godmother of Rock and Roll”. A “godmother” in that she isn’t in the direct lineage, but helped popularize blues-based guitar riffs, and a “godmother” in her spiritual role, the” Sister” from the Church of God in Christ, and the place of gospel music and hymns in her repertoire. Born on this day, died in 1973. Sister Rosetta Tharpe was 58 years old.

 

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and- let's get wild- this is from Revelation 11- do with it what you will!

15 The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said:

“The kingdom of the world has become
 the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah,
 and he will reign for ever and ever.”

16 And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 saying:

“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,
 the One who is and who was,
because you have taken your great power
 and have begun to reign.

18

The nations were angry,
 and your wrath has come.
The time has come for judging the dead,
 and for rewarding your servants the prophets
and your people who revere your name,
 both great and small—
and for destroying those who destroy the earth.”

19 Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a severe hailstorm.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 20th of March 2026, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who has heard of the man skipping out for cigarettes or milk, not usually as an “evangelist”- he is the non-itinerant Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man still in the temporary studios of a friend's office- thanks, Lizzie, and congrats on the wedding! I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.