Flores fails to blend country, rock threads

by Jim Trageser
This review first appeared in the March 20, 1992 edition of the North County Blade-Citizen (now North County Times).

Too much rock for the country crowd, too much country for the rockers. That's the dilemma facing Rosie Flores. Despite the fact that this is a strong album, with excellent songwriting and sterling performances, Flores is likely to find herself stuck out in the cold simply because she waffles between rock and country numbers instead of synthesizing them into a whole.

Her country songs come across strongest on "After the Farm." Two songs co-written by underground country legends – "More to Offer" by Flores and Guy Clark and "Dent in My Heart" with Jimmie Dale Gilmore – both are likely to become standards. Flores' guitar solo on the latter is as tight a piece of American musicianship as you'll hear.

But on mainstream rock songs such as "Sold On You" and "That's Me," Flores – and the band – sound lost.

It's just a suggestion, but Flores' singing, guitar and songwriting all lend themselves most strongly to a country-western approach, albeit the contemporary "alternative" sound favored by Gilmore, Clark and Dwight Yoakam.