Los Lobos

Los Angeles based band, Los Lobos, have always been inspired by their surroundings and the place they call home. Their music is influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, zydeco, folk, R&B, blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional music such as cumbia, boleros and norteños. With Native Sons the band set out to showcase all of these influences with their own take on the songs of Los Angeles from some of the cities greatest songwriters. Native Sons features 13-songs from well known LA artists such as Buffalo Springfield, WAR, Jackson Browne and the Beach Boys as well as deep cuts from the Jaguars, The Basters and The Premiers. The album title track is the sole original composition written by the band.

Given all the extracurricular projects members of Los Lobos pursued during the three years separating Colossal Head and its followup, it's not surprising that they've decided to show off what they've learned on This Time, resulting in a record that vacillates between songcraft and sonic sculptures. It could be said that Kiko and Colassal Head were like this as well, but the difference is that This Time has the structure of a straight-ahead rock & roll record, clocking in at 38 minutes with 11 short tracks. While that conciseness is welcome, it also points out the flaws in the post-Latin Playboys Los Lobos – Cesar Rosas' fine rockers are obscured by a layer of studio gauze, and David Hidalgo's songs can seem like excuses to run wild in the studio…

This 1987 album followed in the footsteps of Los Lobos' two stunning predecessors (And A Time To Dance and How Will the Wolf Survive). One of the band's many strengths is the contrast between the formidable songwriting of David Hidalgo/Louie Perez and Cesar Rosas, with the former exploring stories of sadness and hope while the latter rocks like a barn on fire. This is an album of incredibly natural songs; they roll out like long lost classics, but that's simply another testament to the prowess of this band as players and writers. In a way, this was the band's last offering before they were forced to take stock of themselves and their goals in the wake of the surprise million-selling La Bamba soundtrack. That they were able to carry themselves forward from that point with grace and aplomb is foreshadowed in the utter honesty of this and all of their music.

After two critically acclaimed but only moderately selling albums, los Lobos were hired to record songs for the film biography of Hispanic '50s rocker Ritchie Valens, resulting in this soundtrack album, which, in addition to eight los Lobos recordings, features tracks by Marshall Crenshaw, Brian Setzer, and others. los Lobos' remake of the title song topped the charts, as did this album, which went on to sell two million copies. The result has been something of a career dilemma for the band, who went back to being a critically acclaimed, modest seller afterward.