It's telling that Rosie Flores' e-mail handle begins “chickwpick…” In
a long and eclectic
career of singing, songwriting and performing, no phrase has ever more aptly
described
the San Antonio native.
Over the course of a career that has spanned more than four decades, Flores has
jumped
feet first into punk rock (with her ‘70s-era band, the Screaming Sirens),
country music of
both the Bakersfield and Nashville varieties, the Texas singer/songwriter scene,
altcountry, straight-up rock, and rockabilly. So much so the latter, that her
onstage moniker
for years was “Rockabilly Filly”—but through it all, she was the “Chick
with the Pick.”
Profiled in Guitar World, Premiere Guitar and Guitar Player magazines, Flores
was cited by
Venuszine as one of the “Top 75 Greatest Female Guitarists of All Time.”
Along the way,
she released a number of critically acclaimed albums—among them, her solo
debut,
1987's Rosie Flores, 1995's Rockabilly Filly, 1999's Dance Hall Dreams, the
acoustic live set
Single Rose in 2004, 2009's Girl of the Century and, in 2012, the aptly-named,
selfproduced Working Girl's Guitar.
In recent years, Flores worked with pioneer female rockabilly artists Wanda
Jackson and
Janis Martin, in an effort to help propel them back into the spotlight. In 2007,
she won a
Peabody Award for those efforts, and her narration of the rockabilly
documentary, Whole
Lotta Shakin’. Flores later produced the The Blanco Sessions, which would
prove to be
Janis Martin's last recording.
Simple Case of the Blues brings Flores full circle, and takes square aim at a
genre she has
only touched on in the past. She lends her soulful voice and fiery guitar to
songs by Roy
Brown, Wilson Pickett, Heath Wilson, and a spate of new originals. Produced
by
songwriter/guitarist Charlie Sexton (Bob Dylan, The Arc Angels)., with an
assist by guitarist
Kenny Vaughan (Marty Stuart, Lucinda Williams), Simple Case of the Blues was, to
hear
Flores tell it, a long time coming: “I got infatuated with the blues in high
school,” says
Flores. “It was the first music I ever played.”
She returns to the blues now as a seasoned performer steeped in
life's uncompromising
lessons. At once torchy, soulful, heartfelt and yearning, Simple Case of the
Blues “is the
music you make when you've come through joy and heartbreak and back again,”
says
Flores. “It's an ongoing process; I've mastered the life of a musician, but
I'll be working on
the guitar for the rest of my life.”
