The six best female guitarists of all time?

We were delighted to receive an email on 23rd October 2019 from Jennifer Miller in New Zealand representing Beginner Guitar HQ at: www.beginnerguitarhq.com In a recent article, Beginner Guitar HQ has ranked Sister Rosetta Tharpe (one of our favourite song writers and who features prominently in our repertoire) as the second best female guitarist of all time!

In a fascinating article that includes a video clip link to Rosetta in action, the article observes: Mixing gospel with the electric guitar, she created a distinct sound which transcended boundaries. No matter what venue, Rosetta Tharpe would play her religiously inspired music. She played in both nightclubs and large concert halls bringing her sound to a mainstream audience.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe

We feel privileged to keep Rosetta’s music alive at a wide variety of venues – though without the heavy, distorted electric guitar that characterized her Gospel sound – that wouldn’t go down so well at rural churches where we often play and where the audience is typically 80+ in age!

Our thanks to Jennifer for sharing her magazine’s article with us – it is free to access from: https://beginnerguitarhq.com/best-female-guitarists/ Do please visit Beginner Guitar HQ via the link and read the article.

PS – Jennifer says that Beginner Guitar HQ‘s many thousands of readers might well head to the Gospel Bell website and who knows, we might end up playing well beyond our usual Oxfordshire and Warwickshire base!

St Anne’s Church, Epwell, 18 October 19

Bach, Vivaldi, a string quartet, a choir, close harmony female singers and Gospel Bell – what a night! Thank you to Chris, event organiser, Ronald, Rector and the people of Epwell, Sibford and surrounding villages for turning out last night for a joyful, fund-raising evening of spiritual music in the ancient church of St Anne’s Epwell, Oxfordshire.

The Gospel Bell big band – with string quartet! Left to right, Richard, Troy, David, Donald and David. Behind us – amazing string players! 

During the entire second half, our Gospel Bell blues band (playing American Gospel blues and country Gospel traditions) was backed by a string quartet and female singers – all improvised but you would never have guessed it – and everyone sang along – from around 8 to 80 + years of age. Fantastic!

Donald (foreground), Troy, David and David enjoying the incredible improvised Gospel chorus singing of a female singing group – thanks for fantastic harmonies! 

Chris Hurst, the event organiser wrote to say:

Thank you Gospel Bell, it was a memorable evening – a great atmosphere, wonderful music-making and something for everyone.  Like you, we just enjoy singing and playing together and love it when the rapport with the audience is so good!  We shall certainly discuss future events and invite you back. The evening raised £462 clear profit, which increases this year’s income by a very welcome 5%