Sister Rosetta Tharpe is one of the unsung heroines of American music. She was a virtuoso female guitar player who moved in both the world of spirituals and blues. Her career spanned from the 1930s until the 1970s and included hits such as “Didn’t It Rain,” “I Want a Tall Skinny Papa,” and “Strange Things Happening Every Day.” Wald’s book is the first major biography of Tharpe, and it is informative and descriptive in its depiction of not only the world of gospel and spiritual music but also how a female (who played a “man’s” instrument) was accepted and not accepted into it. These themes, as well as how Tharpe, a Black woman, negotiated the world of Jim Crow, are developed in a comprehensive fashion throughout the narrative.

Tharpe was a vivacious and confident personality, and that comes through in the book in the descriptions of her performances and the few interview excerpts from Tharpe, who did not leave many first person accounts of her life and career. Wald fills in the blanks with interviews of the people who were close to her and the many musicians who were influenced by her. When that fails, Wald speculates on Tharpe’s motivations or history, but on the whole this is a fine biography that hopefully will put Sister Rosetta into the pantheon of American musical pioneers.