Rosie Flores has been a cornerstone of American roots music for more than four decades, leaving her mark upon the intersecting worlds of rockabilly, blues, western swing, California country, jazz, and roadhouse rock & roll.

She’s a songwriter. A pioneering frontwoman. A guitar virtuoso and hard-touring road warrior whose milestones are just as diverse as her music, including nominations from the CMA and ACM Awards,  a Peabody, two Ameripolitan Awards, and a long line of acclaimed solo albums. Still breaking new ground, she returns to her roots with her newest project, Rosie Flores and The Talismen.

It’s a venture that began in 2020. When the Covid-19 pandemic brought her touring schedule to a halt, Flores began playing live streams every Wednesday night, broadcasting the performances from her Austin home. Chris Sensat, the drummer for The Bellfuries, joined her one evening to sing harmonies, and the two were struck by the blend of their voices. Within weeks, they’d added Bellfuries guitarist Mike Molnar and bassist Michael Archer to the line-up. The newly-formed group then headed into the studio, where “So Sad” — a reimagined cover of the Everly Brothers’ 1960 hit, anchored by chiming guitars, swirls of nostalgic reverb, and harmony-heavy hooks that harken back to the early days of rock & roll. — became their first single.

For Flores, who grew up in San Antonio during rock & roll’s infancy, Rosie Flores and the Talismen’s vintage-leaning material marks a full-circle return to the sound that first sparked her love of music. She was raised on the sounds of the AM radio, harmonizing in her family kitchen to classic songs by Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, and Buddy Holly. That music lay the foundation for a diverse career, with Flores fronting the alt-country group Rosie And The Screamers during the 1970s and joining a rockabilly-punk female band, The Screamin’ Sirens, during the following decade. She launched her solo career in the late 1980s, skirting the outer orbits of Nashville’s country mainstream with albums like 1987’s Rosie Flores before building a reputation as a rule-breaking artist whose records blurred the boundaries between genres.