Rory Tharpe

Blues-rock guitarist, ex-Pentecostal, ex-Jesus besotted singer, late 50s, death-obsessed, frustrated and blocked songwriter, fighting to hold it together for her band, finances, creative control and integrity, has struggled with alcohol addiction in the past but is mostly clean and sober, burns through relationships with many wistful backward glances.

Katy Duren 

Organ player, businesswoman, crack the whip motivator and wraith. Mother of Rory T. Sharp-tongued, cantankerous, never fully got her due as a skilled, talented musician in her own right. Micromanages Rory’s career in death as well as life.

Divinity Mason Mulvaney

Sixty-something Pastor of Revivals, Inc. motivational church and call center, childhood nemesis of Rory’s. Ambitious and ruthless in her pursuit of development funds and recognition for her burgeoning church ministry and call center. A rising star in the televangelism industry, fashions herself as a champion of the common worker and bootstraps rugged individualist ethos.

Jude Justis

White woman, late 40s, shambolic global superstar singer-performer, foul-mouthed, swaggering, has built a career off of minstrelsy and stealing from Black women singers, constantly looking over her shoulder as her industry capital wanes.

Cardinal Jefferson

Iconoclast, ace session bassist and raconteur, fortysomething, dogged by career and personal demons, embittered by never having gotten his due with his old record company, the greatest independent Black-owned hitmaker in American history.

Yvette Patton

Right hand woman of Pastor Divinity, fiftysomething, manages Revivals, Inc’s call center and intermediary with women workers, shrewd and calculating with an eye on the bottom line.

Mick Kincade

White male, 50s, de facto road manager to Rory and dabbling bassist, recovering alcoholic, veers between cynicism and optimism, pragmatist, relishes his role as a gatekeeper and grizzled insider, considers himself to have a heart of gold.

Sid Hastings

Twelve year old runaway, dreamer, cult survivor, music lover, and unofficial documentarian of Rory’s sound and conflicted relationship with her audience(s).

Butch

Piano player and keyboardist in Rory’s band, late 40s, level-headed and impetuous rolled into one, longs for more stable footing with Rory, battling heroin addiction and insecurity.

Cruz

Motel owner and businesswoman entrepreneur, 40s-50s, involved in Indigenous community ventures, Rory’s lover, defender and conscience.

Lavender Smyrch

White woman journalist and Jude Justis’ lover, gadfly, fancies herself a feminist muckraker.

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