San Diego Reader

Rosie Flores: Guitar (acoustic), Guitar (electric), Vocals

Genre: Acoustic, Blues & Soul, Rock

RIYL: Bonnie Raitt, Melissa Etheridge

Upcoming Local Shows

Discography

Synoposis

Influences: The Go-Go's, Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly, the Runaways, Bonnie Raitt

Background:

Although critically acclaimed rockabilly and Americana singer/guitarist Rosie Flores was born in San Antonio, Texas, on September 10, 1950, it's as a San Diegan that she first made a national impact. True, even before moving to our city at the age of 12, she showed musical inclination. As heard among the bonus tracks on her 1995 Rockabilly Filly album, Flores made her recording debut at the age of seven, singing along to the radio to Fats Waller via Billy Williams with "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter."

Relocating with her family to San Diego in 1962, Flores had a love of music but no clear direction. "The first place that we lived in was Clairemont," recalls Flores. "I moved right next door to the biggest country music fans that I'd ever met. My girlfriend, who was also 12, and her mother listened to the western station and they kind of turned me on to who Tammy Wynette was."

Flores also loved the pop music of the day. For her initial foray into performing, Flores joined a vocal trio. "I always liked singing, so I started up a little group when I was 13 with my high school friends. We were called the Debs." Flores laughs at the memories. "I've got pictures of us way back then," she remarks. "We were doing kind of a Motown thing, complete with the steps." Interestingly, she wasn't the group's front person. "I started out as a background vocalist with the trio. We were doing a lot of harmonies and soul, sort of a Motown or Stax sound." She picked up a guitar soon after.

Flores's all-girl quartet would be dubbed Penelope's Children. "I met a couple of girls by trying out for the school talent show, because I always wanted to sing," she explains. "It was in my blood and I met a couple of other girls that played guitar like I did so I thought 'wouldn't that be cool to have a band?'"

Flores quickly committed to life as a musician. "We used to do battle of the bands all the time around San Diego. I think we won one of them and came in second another time, but we'd never come in later than third, because we were pretty unique and we were all pretty talented." Though Penelope's Children lasted into the next decade, a record deal wasn't forthcoming, despite such notable successes as opening for Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Turtles at downtown's Convention Hall in December 1969.

Flores next appeared on the punk scene circa 1978 with Rosie and the Screamers, becoming a regular at San Diego night spots from the Skeleton Club to the Bacchanal. The band included Terry Danko, brother of Rick Danko of The Band.

However, with her local options limited, she headed to Los Angeles and released a single in 1982. The following year, she put together the Screamin' Sirens, a cowpunk group. By 1985, however, she was already gigging on her own. She signed with Reprise in 1987 and has released several albums.

Flores attributes her determination for getting her music heard and her work ethic to her parents, who supported her as far back as that first all-girl group. "My father brought us to Clairemont Music Center and signed for $5000 worth of gear," she remembers. "We had a P.A. and we had amps, drums, guitars, and a bass guitar. That's still a lot of money today, but in the late sixties that was an enormous amount of cash...that pretty much started my career as a working musician, from the age of 16."

-- written by Bart Mendoza for San Diego Troubadour, used with permission

As of 2009, Flores lives in Austin, Texas.