Pioneering frontwoman Rosie Flores puts her Texas spin on the Everly Brothers.
If the name Rosie Flores doesn’t vibrate a guitar string, allow us to introduce the award-winning, hard-touring singer, songwriter, and guitar virtuoso. Geographically, you can find her in Austin, Texas, when she’s not on the road. Musically, you can find her at the corner of rockabilly, blues, Western swing, California country, jazz, and roadhouse rock ’n’ roll — with CMA and ACM Award nominations, a Peabody, two Ameripolitan Awards, and a bunch of acclaimed solo albums to her credit.
Now she’s back with a brand-new project, Rosie Flores & the Talismen, that sees her returning to her Americana roots and the kind of music she herself grew up on.
Their first tune, coming out on all platforms on July 9, is an Everly Brothers tribute. And we’ve got the premiere of the video for the first single, “So Sad,” right here.
When C&I’s managing editor found out we’d be premiering Rosie Flores’ new video for her cover of the Everly Brothers classic, her reaction had the charged anticipation of a pumped audience waiting for the band to take the stage.
“Awesome! I grew up on Rosie Flores! I’ll have to let my mom know. I have memories of my mom listening to the Austin music station and playing stacks of KUT compilation CDs. As an adult, I now realize how immersed I was in independent music like Rosie Flores’!”
Two generations of enthusiastic Rosie fans in one family isn’t uncommon, especially in Texas, where the San Antonio native-Austin transplant has been blazing her female-frontwoman trail for more than four decades, rocking the rafters wearing cowboy boots and playing her electric guitar like nobody ever told her girls can’t do that.
Flores’ new music is more can’t-keep-a-rockin’-woman-down proof that she’s the real deal evermore.
Her latest venture started in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic shut touring down and Flores turned to livestreaming from her Austin home. For one of her Wednesday-night performances, Bellfuries drummer Chris Sensat joined in on harmonies, and the blend of their voices encouraged them to keep exploring their obvious musical chemistry. Within weeks, they’d added Bellfuries guitarist Mike Molnar and bassist Michael Archer to the lineup.
“Working with Chris Sensat has been a dream come true,” Flores says. “I’ve been a fan of his drumming for years as well as his harmony vocals. He’s a true musician — plays guitar and French horn. When I asked him to do an Everly Brothers tribute with me, we found out how special our blend was, so he instigated taking it into the recording studio with his band. ‘So Sad’ was the tune we started with, and it became our first single. From there on, we kept recording and the group was formed, now called Rosie Flores & the Talismen.” 
“So Sad (To Watch Good Love Go Bad),” written by Don Everly, was released by the Everly Brothers in 1960 and would go on to become a country hit for a number of artists in the 1970s and ’80s. The Rosie Flores & the Talismen rendition of the song comes out as a double-sided single (along with “I’ve Got a Right to Cry,” penned by Flores and Will Chambeaux) on Mule Kick Records on July 9, 2021. It goes on pre-sale/pre-save July 2 here.
Video Credits:
Filmed at Firefly Studios
Edited by Adrienne Isom, Mule Kick Productions
Director: Rick Mendoza
Production: Patricia Vonne
Styling: Cheryl G. Smith
Special thanks to KP Hawthorne, Adrienne Isom, Chris Isom, Pati Devries, Erin O'Keefe, and Patricia Vonne.
Flores’ handcrafted Steelcaster guitar made for her by James Trussart.
For more on Rosie Flores, visit her website, and follow her on Facebook, and Twitter.
Photography: (All images) courtesy Mark Guerra
