Rosie Flores Brings Her Mix to S.D.

This year’s Harvest Festival at the Community Concourse downtown will feature its usual melange of folksy and new-age arts and crafts, jewelry, pottery, and such arcane foodstuffs as chili-pepper jelly from Colorado.

But, besides the usual gol-durned, Family Circle-type entertainment intended to induce belly-laughs in kids and grandmas, the 1992 installment will offer something different. Recording artist and former San Diegan Rosie Flores will perform several shows at the event Oct. 8-10.

Flores is a first-rate singer, songwriter and guitarist once favorably compared by People magazine to country-and-Western legends Patsy Cline and Kitty Wells. Flores, however, is more catholic in her tastes, and refers to her colorful braid of country, pop, rock, folk, rockabilly and blues as “Western Beat.” She has released two excellent solo albums--1987’s self-titled debut on Warner Brothers/Reprise and last year’s “After the Farm” on HighTone Records.

An incomplete list of credits might make Flores’ career appear to have been inextricably linked with those of well-known male performers. Her collaborators have included the likes of Albert Lee, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Guy Clark and Pete Anderson. Flores last performed here in April as the only woman in a traveling chat-and-strum show called “The Bottom Line’s ‘In Their Own Words’ (A Bunch of Songwriters Sitting Around Singing),” which also featured Midge Ure, Darden Smith, Chip Taylor, and Don Henry.

But, before going solo, Flores either led or was a prominent member of a number of bands that featured women, including the Screaming Sirens, an all-women “cowpunk” band that recorded the critically lauded “Fiesta!” album in 1984. Flores’ pre-fame San Diego groups included Sweet Fire, Rosie and the Screamers, and the all-girl band, Daybreak.

Flores is a captivating, seemingly tireless performer who deserves the success that has been showered on a legion of lesser talents in this field. One hopes that, as in the case of long-ignored Bonnie Raitt, Flores’ cumulative critical acclaim eventually will result in a popular breakthrough.

In the meantime, you can see her up close and semi-personal on the Golden Hall stage in the Performing Arts Center, Community Concourse, 202 C St., at 2:30 and 7 p.m. Oct. 8, 12:45 and 4:15 p.m. Oct. 9, and 12:30 and 2:45 p.m., Oct. 10. Flores’ concerts are free with admission to the Harvest Festival.

Proof that a number of concertgoers aren’t interested in opening acts can be found in the many late arrivals and in crowd response that can range from tepid to hostile. Perhaps implicit in fans’ indifference to warm-up artists is the wish that they had a voice in choosing them, especially in this day of mortgage-size ticket prices. Well, those planning to attend the George Strait-Holly Dunn concert Oct. 10 at the Miramar Naval Air Station have been presented just such an opportunity.

One of the concert’s sponsors, the Mission Valley country-music nightclub, In Cahoots, is holding public auditions to select a local opening act for the show. New West won the first phase of the competition Sunday in a play-off with Prairie Fire and Thunder Express and will compete with the Mud Puppies, Shadow Riders, High Noon and Unbridled in the final contest this Sunday.

In Cahoots will open its doors at 4 p.m., and the first band will perform an hour later. There is no cover charge. Upon entering, each patron will be given one ballot to complete during the performances. A panel of local celebs, including Channel 8’s Hank Bauer, also will judge the proceedings.

The winning act will perform a 45-minute set at 7 p.m. at the Strait-Dunn show. Tickets for the show are $19.50 at all TicketMaster outlets (278-TIXS). In Cahoots is at 5373 Mission Center Road. For additional information about the auditions, call the club at 291-1184.

GRACE NOTES: Both to lessen the potential for hassles and to improve your chances of enjoying today’s Guns N’ Roses/Metallica/Body Count concert at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, you might want to pin the following note to your shirt.

All entrances to the stadium parking lot will open at 12:30 p.m., and the promoters encourage car-pooling to reduce the traffic crunch and air pollution. To purchase tickets or pick them up at the will-call window, go to Gate F. Doors open at 1:30 p.m. If you have floor tickets, enter through Gate C only. Once there, you will not be allowed to leave the floor during the concert.

The concert starts at 3:30 p.m. No re-entry will be allowed, for any reason, once you have left the stadium. Do not bring cans, bottles, food, beverages, cameras, audio or video equipment, weapons, fireworks, pets, umbrellas or beach chairs, as they will not be allowed inside. And remember that the police will be patrolling the parking lot to enforce state and local ordinances, including those pertaining to public intoxication.

Oh, and have a nice day.

BOOKINGS: (Tickets for the following concerts will be sold at all TicketMaster outlets--278-TIXS--unless otherwise specified.) Pato Banton and Boom Shaka share a billing at SOMA Saturday. The all-ages show starts at 9 p.m. (doors open at 8 p.m.). Tickets are $15 in advance, $17 at the door, and can be purchased at TeleSeat outlets (452-SEAT), Lou’s Records in Encinitas, Mama Roots downtown, Irieations at SDSU, and Trade Roots in Ocean Beach and Golden Hill. SOMA is at 555 Union St., downtown, just south of Market Street. . . .

Two of the better local singer-songwriters perform at Better Worlde Galeria this week. On Friday, Peggy Watson takes center stage, followed on Sunday by her friend and sometime cohort, Deborah Liv Johnson. Both shows start at 7:30 p.m. Suggested donation for each is $5. Call 260-8007. . . .

The Belly Up Tavern celebrates its 18th anniversary with a public party Sunday at 4 p.m. featuring Candye Kane and the Swingin’ Armadillos, Doug Randall and Friends, and the Burners. . . .

The Sept. 16 show featuring comedian Judy Tenuta and the David Bradley Trio at the Belly Up Tavern was postponed because of a scheduling conflict. The new date is Oct. 29, with shows at 7 and 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $15. . . .

Appropriately, Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band perform “under the sail” at the San Diego Convention Center on Nov. 6. Tickets are $35 and $27.50 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday. . . .

Screaming Trees, Luna, Failure, and Rust play Iguanas on Nov. 6. Tickets, at $10.91 in advance, $12 day of show, go on sale at 1 p.m. Thursday. . . .

Country boy Johnny Paycheck plays Sound FX on Nov. 12. Tickets are $13. . . .

Senegalese musician Youssou N’Dour is booked into the Belly Up Tavern for Nov. 18. . . .

Testament and D.R.I. play Iguanas Nov. 28. Tickets, at $17.50 in advance, $20 day of show, go on sale at 1 p.m. Thursday.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

FUNK-MASTER AT BELLY UP

Perhaps an equal measure of credit and blame should be laid at George Clinton’s feet for the current profusion of bizarro-mondo dance-rap acts, heavy-metal funk bands, and other Osterized acts that simultaneously venerate and desecrate arch pop styles.

Clinton fathered a generation of “boogie-chilluns” by masterminding the Parliament/Funkadelic psych-funk posse that laid waste to ‘70s pop sensibilities with an assault of outrageous hair, costumes, and cross-racial music. As the architect of post-modern power funk, Clinton has been imitated, updated, and renovated without ever being improved upon.

On Friday night, Clinton and his co-conspirator in musical mayhem, bassist Bootsy Collins, will lead an aggregate called the P-Funk All Stars in a raid on reality at the Belly Up Tavern. Tickets to the 9:30 p.m. concert are $22.50, available through TicketMaster (278-TIXS) or at the door (481-8140).