Girl of the Century

With over half a century of hard roots-rabbling between them, Rosie Flores the Rockabilly Filly, and Jon Langford head Mekon, Waco Brother and conductor of the Chicago-based collective the Pine Valley Cosmonauts, blast a sonic contrail stretching from Texas to Wales, from the dusty hill country to the dusky fetter cairns. These two long-celebrated musical forces, one with her cowboy boots firmly in the dance halls and the other with his work boots sloshing around puddles of beer in the pubs, come together for Girl of the Century, an album of spirited and soulful romps through the back roads of American music.
Rosie's front and center vocals have never sounded better. From her saucy growls to kittenish sass to clarion Ronnie Spector smarts, there s a versatility here she s only hinted at on previous albums. Smooth, cheek to cheek balladry like Last Song and Dark Enough, a torch number so swampy it s easy to imagine her draped over a mossy piano, sashay against a more playful and powerful side when she gets her pop rocks off Maggie May-ish blue-eyed soul style on the Langford penned Halfway Home or the Little Sisterera Elvis rocker This Cat s in the Doghouse co-written by Patricia Vonne. For a little slice of heaven from the Conway and Loretta playbook, look no further than the old school duet with Langford Whose Gonna Take Your Garbage Out?
It s all Texas twang and blustery, rolling rrrr s.