Rosie Flores Glad to Get Back to Country Roots

When country singer Rosie Flores performs Sunday night at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, it will be a homecoming of sorts for the 34-year-old former San Diegan, recently crowned bA. Weekly as “the best new female country singer on record since the rise of the ‘new traditionalists.’ ”

A San Diego resident since she was 12, Flores spent most of the 1970s singing traditional country with local bands in local nightclubs, including the Belly Up.

But when country went commercial with the success of the 1978 movie “Urban Cowboy,” Flores decided to drop out rather than sell out.

“Every crowd in every country bar I was in wanted to hear nothing but Johnny Lee songs and all this other pop stuff that the movie had famous,” Flores recalled in a 1987 interview with The Times. “I thought to myself, ‘This isn’t what I want to do.’ ”

So she made a quick switch to rockabilly--”the only other roots music I felt comfortable singing”--and, with her own group, Rosie and the Screamers, continued to ply the San Diego nightclub circuit for two more years. In 1980, Flores moved her band to Los Angeles in the hopes of finding fortune and fame. After two years of finding neither, she broke up the Screamers and joined an all-girl “cow-punk” group, the Screamin’ Sirens.

About the same time, a wave of interest in old-time twang began sweeping the country, carrying such new traditionalists as Ricky Skaggs and George Strait to the top of the national country charts.

So, between gigging with the Screamin’ Sirens, Flores seized the opportunity to return to her traditional country roots by writing songs, recording demonstration tapes and occasionally performing with an acoustic country trio in tiny Los Angeles honky-tonks.

In 1986, her efforts finally paid off when she was signed by Reprise Records as a solo artist. The release a year later of her debut album, “Rosie Flores,” turned her into the proverbial overnight sensation. The LP, an even mix of tough hillbilly swing and tender ballads, shot up the charts and prompted some of the leading voices in Nashville to liken Flores’ singing and writing style to that of Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn and Emmylou Harris.

Traditional country “is what I started out doing, and it’s what I’ve always enjoyed the most,” Flores said. “It’s honest, simple music, without all the synthesizers and violins and over-production (characteristic of) the country-pop of the ‘Urban Cowboy’ era.”

A dozen local musicians and bands will be honored Monday at the eighth annual North County Entertainer Music Awards. The ceremony, at the La Paloma Theater in Encinitas starting at 7:30 p.m., follows two weeks of polling in which 16,000 ballots were distributed to more than 70 North County nightclubs.

Winners will receive bronze Jolson Awards in each of the 12 categories: Best Contemporary Solo, Best Contemporary Duo, Best Contemporary Group, Best Rhythm-and-Blues Group, Best Jazz Artist, Best Vintage Jazz Group, Best Country Group, Best Vintage Rock Group, Best Rock ‘n’ Roll/Top 40 Group, Best Original Rock ‘n’ Roll Group, Entertainers of the Year and Entertainer of the Year.

Entertainment for the evening will be provided by past Jolson Award winners Polk Salad Annie, the Savery Brothers, Hut-Sut Ralston and three-quarters of the Beat Farmers--Joey Harris, Jerry Raney and Country Dick Montana--playing as an acoustic trio! Presenters include Soviet rock star Laima Vaikule, in town for a month of rehearsals in Leucadia; Stevie Salas, formerly with North County bar band This Kids and now the guitarist with Rod Stewart’s band, and Michael Reagan, son of the former president.

According to executive director Kevin Hellman, the purpose behind the North County Entertainment Music Awards is twofold: to “give some recognition to local musicians and at the same time raise money for local charities.”

Since the awards were established in 1982 by Brian A. Cook, former publisher of the North County Entertainer, nearly 100 nightclub performers have had their moment in the spotlight--and more than $25,000 has been collected from ticket sales and distributed to such beneficiaries as Casa de Amparo in Oceanside and the Marylou Clack Center for Handicapped Children in Vista, which last year was named permanent recipient.

LINER NOTES: The video of Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper’s new single, “239-KING,” is enjoying heavy-rotation air play on MTV, the 24-hour cable music-video channel. . . . Heavy metal bands Poison and Tesla last week canceled their entire West Coast tour, including yesterday’s scheduled stop at the San Diego Sports Arena, when Poison lead singer Bret Michaels suddenly developed a severe throat infection. Ironically, the group’s latest album is titled “Open Up and Say . . . Ahh!”

Among the fans attending last Saturday night’s concert at the UC San Diego gym by Australian up-and-comers Crowded House: tennis star Andre Agassi, in town for the Davis Cup finals. . . . Tickets go on sale Saturday for the Jerry Garcia Band’s May 20 concert at San Diego State University’s Open Air Theater. Also on the bill: Garcia’s Grateful Dead-mate Bob Weir. . . . Two more dates have been added to this year’s Concerts by the Bay series at Humphrey’s on Shelter Island: comedians Louie Anderson and Dennis Miller, June 11, and soul songstress Roberta Flack, July 18.