St. Vincent: Visionary Women

"When people ask me about my favourite guitar players, I say look no further than Sister Rosetta Tharpe," Annie Clark tells Apple Music. Clark, who performs as St. Vincent, included Tharpe's "Didn't It Rain" on her exclusive Apple Music playlist honouring International Women's Day, alongside other heroes and trailblazers she's drawn inspiration from, including Billie Holiday. "Holiday sang the song 'Strange Fruit' onstage in New York in 1939 to protest the lynchings of Black people in the South. Her performance was so powerful that a racist FBI agent named Harry Anslinger made it his mission to try to destroy her career. While he did not succeed, he did manage to make her already difficult life even more difficult. So fuck that dude to the obscure loser bin of history, and long live the genius spirit of Billie Holiday that will live on forever through her transcendent work."