Resounding tribute

Rosetta Tharpe's fellow performers will do her songs

If Sister Rosetta Tharpe had been alive today, she would've been absolutely tickled to hear one of her songs used in a TV commercial.

'Shout, Sister, Shout!: Tribute to Sister Rosetta Tharpe' Featuring Odetta, the Holmes Brothers and Marie Knight In concert: 7:30 p.m. Friday Place: Hawaii Theatre Tickets: $15, $20 and $25 Call: 528-0506 or online at www.hawaiitheatre.com Recommended listening "The Gospel of Blues" Sister Rosetta Tharpe (MCA)

Such was my surprise one day when, during a commercial break on Cartoon Network, the spry sounds of "Strange Things Happening Every Day" piqued my ears, playing over the image of happy, jumping kids enjoying their Chef Boyardee.

Originally released in 1944, the infectious boogie song, recorded with the Sam Price Trio, was the first gospel record to hit Billboard's "race records" chart. "Strange Things," indeed. It was my introduction to the gregarious singer-guitarist who, at the height of her career, was one of the most popular entertainers in the U.S., dating from the mid-1940s to early '50s.

Three years earlier, in 2003, Tharpe's rich musical legacy was honored through the album "Shout, Sister, Shout!: A Tribute to Sister Rosetta Tharpe." The critical success of that album led to a touring show featuring three of the artists who participated on that project: Tharpe's former singing partner Marie Knight, the Holmes Brothers and Odetta, the "Mother Goddess of Folk/Blues" (as anointed by the New York Times).

A Honolulu audience will experience the rousing magic of Tharpe's songs as channeled through these musicians Friday night at the Hawaii Theatre.

Tony Heilbut, author of the authoritative "The Gospel Sound," described the sanctified church singer as the inventor of "pop gospel." Whether it was just her powerful voice and blues guitar, or with the assistance of a small or big band, she electrified audiences both black and white with her boisterous presence.

Born in the small town of Cotton Plant, Ark., Tharpe was a precocious child, so much so that by the age of 6 she mastered her guitar picking style (along the lines of other popular artists of the day as Memphis Minnie and Big Bill Broonzy) and accompanied her mother, a traveling missionary, to Holiness church conventions around the country.

AFTER THARPE started her solo career in 1938, her popularity soared, even through the height of World War II. In '46, she joined her voice with Knight, originally a sanctified shouter from Newark, N.J. Later billed as "Madame Marie Knight," Knight's lower-registered contralto was the perfect vocal foil to Tharpe's higher voice. Together, they sang such memorable songs as "Up Above My Head," "Precious Memories" and "Didn't It Rain," which Knight reprised on the tribute album with the same down-home spirit as her late singing partner's.

"It was not just the rhythm and the tone," Knight has said about Tharpe, "but it was the way she used her sound emotionally."

The two broke up when Tharpe started releasing secular blues-boogie records, much to the point of being ostracized by her church. From the mid-'50s until her death in 1973, Tharpe was reduced to a middling career in the U.S., making annual tours of Southern churches -- sharing programs with other gospel groups like the Dixie Hummingbirds and the Sensational Nightingales -- and Catskill mountain resorts. Her popularity in Europe, particularly France, however, was always high.

It took the "Shout, Sister, Shout!" tribute album to put Tharpe's music back into the spotlight, albeit briefly. Odetta contributed her version of "Two Little Fishes and Five Loaves of Bread." (It was the flip side of the aforementioned hit "Strange Things." For the record, Michelle Shocked does a slow, haunting take of the song for the tribute album that is miles apart from the jubilant original.)

As for the Holmes Brothers -- guitarist-keyboardist Wendell Holmes, bassist Sherman Holmes and drummer Popsy Dixon -- they'll accompany Knight on stage, much in the same way they backed some of the guest artists on the tribute album, specifically Joan Osborne ("Nobody's Fault But Mine"), Phoebe Snow ("Beams of Heaven") and Victoria Williams ("My Lord and I").

All in all, it should make for a night that Sister Rosetta would've heartily participated in herself, if only she could.