Cash’d Out Christmas with Rosie Flores

A double-header with Cash’d Out and Rosie Flores for your holiday pleasure. Cash’d Out is a Johnny Cash tribute act. They’ve been around San Diego now for close to a decade. For what it’s worth, Cash’d Out has taken home the award for Best Cover or Tribute Band five times from the San Diego Music Awards. They represent the years Cash recorded for the Sun and the Columbia record labels, which is to say virtually every song that made him famous: “Ring of Fire,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” and so on. Cash never actually did time, but he flew the outlaw flag, and prisoners loved him. As Bob Hope was to the Armed Forces, so was Johnny Cash to the nation’s penitentiaries where he gigged endlessly. Simple, but deep. You don’t think so? Read the liner notes he wrote for Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline. For this and more, I’d guess the Man in Black is a tough act to master, but Cash’d Out has him down cold.

Rosie Flores put the alt in alt-country. And at 64, she still has more punk in her little finger than a dozen Johnny Rottens. Born in San Antonio, Flores spent her teen years growing up in San Diego. People first saw her in Rosie and the Screamers during the 1970s, followed by an all-out punk group she called the Screaming Sirens. But Flores is way better on guitar and vocals than her past in those two bands would indicate. Still, career-wise, she’s been a gifted artist in search of that most holy of industry grails, the hit single. Never happened. But the lack of radio support hasn’t shorted her ticket sales, and Flores has earned a solid fan base over the years and road miles. Any alt-country artist today earning money in that genre has her to thank. Together with Cash’d Out? Like gasoline on a fire.

Dead Rock West also performs.