FILTER ALBUMS
The ties that bind
The family that plays together… A Mississippi matriarch and her family are here to spread the word. David Hutcheon is a believer. Illustration by Borja Bonafuente.
Annie & The Caldwells
★★★★
Can’t Lose My (Soul)
LUAK A BOP. CD/DL/LP
E IGHTY YEARS AGO, in April 1945, Sister Rosetta Tharpe was Number 2 on the Billboard “race records” chart with Strange Things Happening Every Day – fair comment for the month in which Franklin D Roosevelt, Mussolini and Hitler all died. There were also several noteworthy musical events: Richard Strauss completed Metamorphosen; Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel opened; the audience at a hometown performance by the Berlin Philharmonic were offered cyanide as they left the auditorium; and Tharpe’s hit was the first gospel record to reach that Billboard countdown.
Often cited as the earliest rock’n’roll track, Strange Things Happening Every Day was a genuine attempt to assuage critics who complained that Tharpe was targeting secular audiences. By 1964, when she appeared at a disused Manchester railway station for British television, rock, soul and gospel were three discrete genres… though you wouldn’t have known that from her performance. That trinity continue to pick each other’s pockets, and while some acts have kept a foot in all camps, many are convinced you can only be in one. Others quietly keep an eye on what the competition is up to.