Photo: Rodney Bursiel

Few album-openers more effectively assert the artist’s identity than the title track to Rosie Flores’ new solo album, Working Girl’s Guitar. The song is an up-front, declarative statement of purpose, from its surf-inspired opening riff to Flores’ strong voice belting out the lines, “I’m a working girl’s guitar / playing towns / travel far” — a fair summation of the life of the 61-year-old guitar slinger who sings the words. So it’s a little surprising to learn that she didn’t even write the song.

“A friend of mine named Ritchie Mintz actually wrote this song for me because I had sold him a guitar,” she explains. “When he looked at the guitar, he said, ‘You know what? This is a working girl’s guitar.’ It was an acoustic Taylor that I’d been playing for about ten years. He said, ‘This guitar’s got scars on it. You’ve played this guitar.’ Richie called me the next day and said, ‘Rosie, I’ve got to play you this song. Your guitar wrote a song.’ He played it for me, and I knew instantly that it was going to be on the record.”

Working Girl’s Guitar is out October 16 on Bloodshot Records.