Rosie Flores and the Falcons
Sportsmen's Tavern June 23, 2004
by Kevin J. Hosey
It was the basics in one sense and a whole lot plus a whole lot more when Rosie Flores and the Falcons played a long, no-frills, excellent set at the Sportsmen’s Lounge in Buffalo.
Her backing band, the rhythm section of bassist Scott McKewen and drummer John McTigue this time out, was smaller than the 2002 band she brought here, which also included guitarist Chris Scruggs. Good as Scruggs may be, Flores made sure no one missed a second guitarist with a fine night of guitar playing as well as slight rearrangements of some songs, almost all gaining from the simplified approach. She also didn’t have to seem to compete with or top anyone (this may be where the live solo performances oft-captured in Single Rose” come in handy).
After working her way through the audience, saying hello to just about everyone, Flores and the Falcons opened with Gary Stewart’s “Whiskey Trip,” added “Crazy Mixed Emotions,” with Flores warming things up with a real nice solo, then kept the pace going fast with “Little Bit More” and “Rock-a-Bye Boogie,” which produced some singing along as well as some pretty decent dancing. She slowed down the set a little with a fine, slinky version of “Single Rose.”
Flores then spoke of her admiration of the late Johnny Cash to preface a rather good “Big River,” and contributed some fine guitar picking to “Shreveport.” She turned the tables a bit by singing “She’s Acting Single (And Drinking Doubles)” to change the gender of Gary Stewart’s “He’s Acting Single (and Drinking Doubles),” followed by Ray Price’s “Three Days.” Flores turned to the large number of women in the crowd and spoke of nicer things to introduce “Aromatherapy Cowgirl” from her “Single Rose” CD. It was time for Flores to crank it up a bit again, and she added some extra thick sexual innuendo and teasing to “Hot Dog,” which left the audience laughing. She got serious again and played a strong, moving “Boxcars,” adding some blues and dread to Butch Hancock’s already classic song. Flores continued sprinkling some head shakingly good covers with her own songs, with standouts including Robbie Fulks’ “I Push Right Over” and “Tunnel of Love” by Wanda Jackson, and ended her set with her own “Blue Side of Town,” which Patti Loveless has covered.
While Flores played some awfully good solos, none of them were overly fast or demonstrating histrionics, instead showing taste, some restraint but still enough punch (in a recent interview, Gurf Morlix told me of the night at a club he heard and watched Flores “just shred up” a major name guitarist whose talent at least matches his fame). Once again, I had to wait a bit after the set ended while Flores and Val reacquainted themselves and discussed a bunch of things.
Opening for Rosie Flores was the trio of Jim Whitford on guitar and vocals, Cathy Carfagna (Carfagna plays in Whitford’s Real Beat Band) on accordion and vocals and Dave Ruch on mandolin, playing mainly songs from his solo “Poison in the Well” CD and his previous band, the Pine Dogs, as well as some covers. Highlighting the set was a raw, emotional “Walking All Alone,” and a fantastic “Whiskey Voice” which actually brought some of the crowd to their feet through Whitford’s singing and the blend of his guitar and Ruch’s mandolin. “Mr. Moneyman,” and old-timey, poppy song about being poor and controlled by others, was the base of a gorgeous Carfagna accordion solo. They added some gas to end the set with a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Brown-Eyed Handsome Man” and the Pine Dogs’ “Good Luck, Money and Gasoline.”