“Her roaring mastery of her trusty Gibson Les Paul Custom rivaled the best of her male contemporaries”: A lost Sister Rosetta Tharpe live album featuring never-before-heard recordings has been unearthed – and it’s set for release this year

A new live album recorded by trailblazing rock ‘n’ roll icon Sister Rosetta Tharpe, which includes newly discovered and never-before-heard recordings from a performance in the mid-’60s, has been announced.

Formally titled Sister Rosetta Tharpe Live In France: The 1966 Concert In Limoges, the 21-track record captures Tharpe’s performance from Limoges’ Grand Theater on November 11 of that year, which was recorded by the ‘Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française’ (ORTF).

The album has been scheduled for release from April 20, and is the result of work conducted by Zev Feldman – an archivist dubbed “The Indiana Jones of jazz” by Stereophile, and who was profiled in The New Yorker for his ability to recover and revive “lost” music from seminal artists.

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It was Feldman who, while doing a search of France’s archives, stumbled upon the recording. Of course, he understood the significance of his discovery: an as-yet-unreleased performance from one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most influential early pioneers, accompanying herself with her iconic Les Paul Custom (later renamed the SG).

“Sister Rosetta Tharpe has been a towering and trailblazing figure in music even decades and decades after her passing in 1973,” Feldman comments in a statement, “and her influence is still being felt to this day.

“This recording has never been released before and I consider it a very special time capsule of a document that transports you back to a wonderful performance in the mid-1960s in France.”

Naturally, Feldman isn’t the only one to recognize the importance of Live In France. To that end, the physical album release will comprise rare photos, art direction, and liner notes from Tharpe experts, including an essay from Tharpe biographer Gayle Ward.

“Sister Rosetta was the first guitar heroine of rock & roll,” Ward writes in her piece. “Her heartfelt gospel folksiness gave way to her roaring mastery of her trusty Gibson Les Paul Custom, which she wielded on a level that rivaled the best of her male contemporaries.”

The set also contains commentary from contemporary artists, such as Susan Tedeschi, Billy Gibbons, Shemekia Copeland, Henry Rollins, Brian Ray and Bonnie Raitt.

“I don't know of anybody really who plays exactly like she does, but I can hear her influence in people from Little Richard to Elvis Presley, to Clapton, to Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, a lot of different people,” Tedeschi says in her own notes. “You can hear her in their playing, so when you hear that rock and roll thing, it really kind of comes from her.”

Raitt was equally praising of Tharpe’s influence: “Rosetta was one of the most beloved and influential artists ever in gospel music... and she blazed a trail for the rest of us women guitarists with her indomitable spirit and accomplished, engaging style.”

That Live In France is positioned to be one of 2024’s biggest guitar albums comes as no surprise. Tharpe is, after all, a hugely influential figure in the guitar and wider music world, and her impact can’t be overstated.

She continues to influence numerous guitar players – Keith Richards and Eric Clapton worshiped her solos – and had a hand in kick-starting the British blues-rock explosion way back in 1957.

Tharpe, synonymous with her three-humbucker Les Paul Custom, also shaped the future of blues-rock with her incendiary ‘64 performance at an English train station, and led the way in the development of rock guitar.

A documentary exploring the “founding mother of rock ‘n’ roll” was released by Gibson this time last year.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe Live In France: The 1966 Concert In Limoges will be released as a limited-edition two-LP set on April 20 (Record Store Day) and a deluxe CD edition on April 26.

Visit Record Store Day to find out more.