The first time I saw Rosie play was, as my dearly departed Aunt Blanche Starr used to say, scatey-eight years ago. I think the year might have been 1998, or '97, though that is less poetic sounding. It was at the Gavin Magazine "In The Pines" Americana Convention in Lake Tahoe. I met Mike McClure and The Great Divide there, and listened to the Bad Livers and Kieran Kane, and got to know Duane Jarvis, and Doug Sahm a bit at that event. A memorable occasion all the way around, even though most of it was a blur, as days of music, panel discussions, luncheons, dinners and drinking are. But there were some stand out moments that are burned into my brain. There was a jam session on the last night, during which Rosie Flores played a scorching guitar. Though I had heard her music before that, The Rockabilly Filly amazed me with her ripping riffs and sweet, yet spirited vocals. I have long pondered what put a guitar in her hands in the first place. I know how hard it is to swim upstream, and I'm a huge admirer of how gutsy girls like Rosie busted through the male traditions and stereotypes of their youth to invent themselves.
This is not the news you ever want to hear for a physical person, musician or otherwise. Rosie Flores broke her arm, though in typical Rosie fashion, she has proclaimed it not a "broken arm," but a "healing arm." We are hoping she will not have to have surgery on it, but in the meantime, she was getting ready to go out on tour with Jon Langford. What's worse is the fact that, like many other musicians (and Americans for that matter), Rosie doesn't have any health insurance. She was relying on this upcoming tour to pay the bills for awhile, and now she's just laid up, and struggling. So, if you can help Rosie with a few bucks, please click here.
Miss Rosie is a tour de force. Her latest CD, Girl of The Century was produced by the aforementioned Jon Langford. From it, here is "This Cat's In The Doghouse."
-Jessie Scott
