Still Rockin’ & Howlin’ at 50, Los Lobos Leave No Doubt They Have Survived

Until a few years ago, I only had known Los Lobos because of their 1987 rendition of Ritchie Valens’ La Bamba. The title track of the motion picture about the Mexican-American Chicano rock & roll star topped the charts in the U.S. and many other countries around the world. While they disappeared from the charts almost as quickly as they had conquered them, Los Lobos continued to record great music and perform live. This year, they are celebrating their 50th anniversary with an extended U.S. tour. I was fortunate to catch their gig last Friday at Pollak Theatre, a 700-seat performance venue on the campus of Monmouth Univesity in West Long Branch, N.J.

Before getting to the great concert, I’d like to provide a bit of background on the group. Los Lobos, who blend rock & roll, Tex-Mex, country, zydeco, folk, R&B, blues and soul with traditional Spanish music like cumbia, bolero and norteño, were founded by David Hidalgo (vocals, guitar) and Louie Pérez (drums) in East Los Angeles, Calif. in 1973. When Hidalgo and Pérez met in high school, they realized they liked the same artists, such as Fairport Convention, Randy Newman and Ry Cooder. Subsequently, they asked their fellow students Frank Gonzalez (vocals, mandolin, arpa jarocha), Cesar Rosas (vocals, guitar, bajo sexto) and Conrad Lozano (bass, guitarron, vocals) to join them, completing the band’s first line-up.

In early 1978, the group, then still known as Los Lobos del Este de Los Angeles, self-released their eponymous debut album in Spanish. By the time of their October 1984 sophomore album and first major label release, How Will the Wolf Survive?, they had shortened their name to Los Lobos and started to write songs in English. Then, the group featured Hidalgo, Pérez, Rosas, Lozano and Steve Berlin (keyboards, woodwinds) who had joined in 1982, the same members Los Lobos have to this day – how many other bands can you name who have had a constant line-up for 40 years?

Los Lobos (from left): Cesar Rosas (vocals, guitar, mandolin), Conrad Lozano (bass, guitarron, vocals), Steve Berlin (saxophone, percussion, flute, midsax, harmonica, melodica), Louis Perez (drums, guitar, percussion, vocals) and David Hidalgo (vocals, guitar, accordion)

To date, Los Lobos have released 17 studio albums, four live records, three compilations and a couple of EPs. Their most recent album, Native Sons from July 2021, is largely a covers collection, which I reviewed here. It won a Grammy Award for Best Americana album in April 2022, the group’s fourth Grammy so far. Time to turn to the concert!

In some regards, writing this review is a bit of a challenge, since I’m only familiar with some of Los Lobos’ music. Moreover, if you check setlist.fm, you quickly notice the band varies their setlists from gig to gig – one sign of their great musicianship. As of the writing of this post, no setlist for this specific gig has been posted on setlist.fm. Thanks to notes I took on my phone during the show and some research, I’ve been able to figure out 60 percent of the songs they played- not too shabby I suppose.

The Pollak Theatre at Monmouth University only has 20 rows and 700 seats, making it an intimate venue

Based on my insights, Los Lobos’ setlist spanned their entire career. Apart from their own songs, they played a number of covers, drawing on the studio albums How Will the Wolf Survive? (1984), The Neighborhood (1990), Kiko (1992), Colossal Head (1996), The Ride (2004), The Town and the City (2006) and Native Sons (2021), among others. The band not only demonstrated great musicianship but also their stylistic versatility, including rock, blues, Tex Mex, cumbia, pop and jazz.

Los Lobos kicked off the show with Is This All There Is?, co-written by Hidalgo and Pérez. The mid-tempo rocker is from their 2004 studio album The Ride, which featured numerous guests. For this tune, it was Little Willie G. (Willie Garcia) of Thee Midniters, one of the first successful Chicano rock bands. Check out Steve Berlin’s massive saxophone and its crunchy sound – I love it!

Chuco’s Cumbia, penned by Rosas, is a great example of a groovy Latin tune by Los Lobos. Cumbia is a folkloric genre and dance from Columbia. Originally, the song appeared on their 12th studio album The Town and the City, released in September 2006.

Another great performance was Love Special Delivery, a garage rock tune originally recorded by Thee Midniters in 1966. Los Lobos included a nice cover on the aforementioned Native Sons album.

To me, a highlight of the night was Kiko and the Lavender Moon, an original I’ve come to dig. Another one was a fantastic cover of Cream’s Politician, which I missed capturing. Co-written by Hidalgo and Pérez as well, Kiko and the Lavender Moon tune was included on Kiko, the sixth studio album by Los Lobos, released in May 1992. It’s an unusual song with traces of retro jazz and a Latin groove. I’ve heard nothing like it before.

Next, I’d like to highlight a one-two punch, starting with Don’t Worry Baby, one of my favorite Los Lobos tunes, off their above-mentioned October 1984 sophomore album How Will the Wolf Survive? The smoking blues-rocker was co-written by Rosas, Pérez and the album’s co-producer, T-Bone Burnett. Immediately following is Mas y Mas, another great rock song half sung in Spanish, half in English. This track is from their 1996 album Colossal Head. The wolves were fully unleashed!

And then the time had come for the encore: a nice medley of La Bamba, which I had not intended to record initially, but I started and then just kept going, especially when I noticed the combination with Good Lovin’. The latter was co-written by Rudy Clark and Arthur Resnick and became a no. 1 single for The Young Rascals in 1966.

Following is a partial setlist:
• Is This All There Is?
• Emily
• Chuco’s Cumbia
• Misery
• A Matter of Time
• Love Special Delivery (Thee Midniters cover)
• Politician (Cream cover)
• Kiko and the Lavender Moon
• Don’t Worry Baby
• Mas y Mas
Encore:
• Medley: La Bamba (Ritchie Valens cover) & Good Lovin’ (The Young Rascals cover)

Eight tracks are missing from the above setlist.

Getting a ticket for Los Lobos was a relatively spontaneous decision, which I’m glad I made since I had not seen them before, plus it was pretty affordable. Since the show, Los Lobos played The Gordon Center of the Performing Arts in Owings Mills, Md. and The Paramount Theatre in Charlottesville, Va. Tonight, they perform at The Ramkat in Winston-Salem, N.C. Then they are taking a short break before heading to Arizona where they play the Fox Tucson Theatre in Tucson (March 10) and the Chandler Center for the Arts in Chandler (March 11). The full tour schedule is here. If you like their music, I can recommend seeing them.

Sources: Wikipedia; Los Lobos website; YouTube

The Sunday Six

It’s Sunday, folks, and hope everybody is enjoying their weekend. I’m happy to embark on another excursion into the great world of music, “visiting” six great tracks from different decades. Hope you’ll join me.

Dooley Wilson/As Time Goes By

Today, our little journey starts all the way back in 1942 with what has to be one of the greatest motion picture soundtrack songs of all time. I actually cannot believe it took me more than six years to cover As Time Goes By, which of course was featured in what probably is the movie I’ve watched most often: Casablanca starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid and Peter Lorre. The plot, the filming, the amazing cast – call me a silly sentimentalist, but they just don’t make them like this anymore! As Time Goes By was written more than 10 years earlier in 1931 by Herman Hupfeld for a Broadway musical called Everybody’s Welcome. The tune was first performed by Frances Williams when the show opened on October 31, 1931. The first recording by Rudy Vallée occurred in July 1931. But it was American actor, singer and musician Dooley Wilson whose performance in Casablanca (as Sam) made the song a household name. Play it, Sam, play As Time Goes By.

Steely Dan/Aja

It’s really tough to follow a timeless classic like As Time Goes By, so we have to go to arguably the best album by one of the most sophisticated jazz pop-rock bands I know: Steely Dan and their gem Aja. Released on September 23, 1977, the album recently hit its 45th anniversary. As a fan of the Dan, I’ve covered the ingenious partnership of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker and music from their sixth studio recording many times, for example here and here. But this is the first time I feature the album’s title track in The Sunday Six. Like all other tracks on Aja, it was co-written by Becker and Fagen. If I see this correctly, it’s the album’s only tune that didn’t appear separately on a single at the time.

Son Volt/Drown

Alrighty, time for some rock, coz you just can’t live without it! Son Volt only entered my radar screen last year when the alternative country and Americana rock band released their latest album Electro Melodier. It was love at first sight! The group around singer-songwriter and guitarist Jay Farrar was formed by him in 1994 after the breakup of Uncle Tupelo, another alt. country outfit he had co-founded in 1987. Son Volt’s studio debut Trace appeared in September 1995, which I covered here. To date, the band has released 10 albums. In addition to Farrar, the current members include Chris Frame (guitar), Mark Spencer (keyboards, steel guitar), Andrew DuPlantis (bass) and Mark Patterson (drums). One of my favorite tunes on Trace is Drown, which all except one of the additional tracks on the album was penned by Farrar.

The Prisoners/Hurricane

Are you still with me? If you haven’t done so already, buckle your seatbelt, since it’s gonna get stormy and, as such, the ride could get a bit bumpy with great retro-style garage rock by The Prisoners. I have to give a shoutout to fellow blogger Max from Poper Pop, who brought the British band on my radar screen when he recently featured one of their tunes. Formed in 1980 in Rochester, England, The Prisoners released four albums during their initial run that latest until 1986. They subsequently reformed for several live gigs and issued a one-off single in 1997, which is likely their final release. Since the group broke up, their members Graham Day (vocals, guitar), James Taylor (organ), Allan Crockford (bass) and Johnny Symons (drums) played in a broad range of other bands. Perhaps most notable were The Solarflares, who featured Day and Crockford and essentially reprised the sound of The Prisoners. Here’s The Hurricane, written by Day and off The Prisoners’ 1983 sophomore album The Wisermiserdemelza – my kind of garage rock!

Nyati Mayi & The Astral Synth Transmitters/Cry Woman

How about some African music that sounds shall we say a bit different than what I usually feature? As far as I know, not even fellow blogger Graham from Aphoristic Album Reviews, who in my book has an encyclopedic knowledge of music and, among others, features artists from Africa and other non-English speaking regions and countries, has covered this act. According to this review on Pan African Music, Nyati Mayi & The Astral Synth Transmitters are a duo comprised of Nyati Mayi, a Congolese singer who plays a stringed instrument called the lulanga, and soFa, a Belgian DJ and producer, aka the Astral Synth Transmitters and soFa elsewhere. Apparently, soFa became aware of Mayi’s music via social media and remixed one of his tracks. Their partnership evolved into Nyati Mayi & The Astral Synth Transmitters and their first album Lulanga Tales, which appeared last month on September 16 – I love these types of stories! Here’s a track from their debut titled Cry Woman. I find this music very relaxing, almost meditative. Check it out!

The Chambers Brothers/All Strung Out Over You

For our final stop today, let’s go back to the ’60s and some groovy psychedelic soul by The Chambers Brothers. Formed in Los Angels in 1954 as a four-piece, the group of four brothers initially focused on performing folk and gospel music throughout Southern California. They remained little known until 1965 when they started to perform in New York. American folk, blues and jazz artists Barbara Dane, who toured with The Chambers Brothers, introduced them to Pete Seeger who in turn helped them put on the bill of the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. By the time they released All Strung Out Over You as a single in December 1966, the group – George Chambers (washtub bass, electric bass), Lester Chambers (harmonica), Willie Chambers and Joe Chambers (guitar) – had added drummer Brian Keenan. Written by Rudy Clark, the tune also became the opener of The Chambers Brothers’ debut album appropriately titled The Time Has Come, which appeared in November 1967. They recorded seven additional studio albums until 1975. George Chambers and Keenan passed away in October 2019 and October 1985, respectively.

Here’s a Spotify playlist of the above tunes. Hope there’s something you dig and you’ll be back for the next trip. In fact, selfishly, I hope it’s going to be before then!

Sources: Wikipedia; Pan African Music; YouTube; Spotify