Los Lobos – Native Sons (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Los Lobos – Native Sons (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 49:27 minutes | 1,03 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © New West Records, LLC

Los Lobos named their debut album Just Another Band from East L.A. back in 1978, when they were still primarily playing acoustic music. While the title was meant to be tongue in cheek, their hometown is clearly a major part of who they are and what they do. It’s hard to imagine another city giving them the fertile ground to create their trademark fusion of rock, blues, folk, Latin, R&B, and Tex-Mex that manages to be more than the sum of that remarkable list of parts. Los Lobos pay tribute to the Los Angeles musical community and the songs that inspired them on 2021’s Native Sons, which features a dozen songs originally written and recorded by artists from L.A., along with one new original. The covers album is often a risky proposition, as it suggests the artists may have run out of fresh ideas of their own, but if Los Lobos didn’t write most of the songs here, they make them their own with the imagination, spirit, and commitment of their performances, not to mention their impressive chops and the incredible feel that comes from more than four decades of working together. They open the set with “Love Special Delivery,” a classic side from the East L.A. R&B act Thee Midniters, who fittingly were stars in California without breaking big anywhere else, and while it’s mostly faithful to the original, the band tears into it with the fervor of true fans. They show a special joy in putting their stamp on material from hometown heroes like Lalo Guerrero Y Sus Cincos Lobos (“Los Chucos Suaves”), Willie Bobo (“Dichoso”), Don & Dewey (“Farmer John”), and the Jaguars (“Where Lovers Go”), though they can also tackle Buffalo Springfield (their arrangement of “For What It’s Worth” expands greatly on the menace of the original), the Beach Boys (a emphatic performance of “Sail On Sailor”) and War (a jazzy exploration of “The World is a Ghetto” with guest vocals from Little Willie G. and Barrence Whitfield) with an individual style. And the impassioned plea of the title cut sounds just like one of the dusties that inspired them in the first place while also feeling fresh and totally like them. Native Sons is a tribute that manages to be more than a set of covers – it shows what the band learned from these songs, as well as showing us where their long musical journey has taken them. It’s essential listening from one of America’s greatest bands.

A covers project like Native Sons would under most circumstances be little more than a placeholder. But standard assumptions do not apply when talking about Los Lobos, perhaps the finest and longest-lived American roots assemblage in popular music history. From their big hit cover of Ritchie Valens’s immortal, “La Bamba” (recorded for the 1987 Valens biopic of the same name) to the exquisite art rock of their 1992 masterpiece Kiko, this quintet (four of the five members been playing together since high school), are seasoned interpreters who can, cliched as it sounds, literally master any tune from any genre and best of all-still find a lot of joy in doing it. Six years after their last album, Gates of Gold, David Hidalgo, Cesar Rosas, Conrad Lozano, Louie P’erez, Jr., and Steve Berlin decided to pay tribute to the Southern California musical roots that have influenced their journey. Sounding revitalized by the experience, they look all the way back to when they played weddings and closed out long nights with the sentimental Chicano soul classic, “Where Lovers Go.” Being city boys, they were also attuned to garage rock and here give a rousing rendition of “Farmer John” an early guitar band classic written by Don Terry and Dewey Harris but made famous in 1964 by L.A. garage band, The Premiers. After Rosas makes a flavorful pass through “Dichoso,” first done by Willie Bobo in 1966, the ’70s are represented by two of Stephen Stills’ Buffalo Springfield compositions: “Bluebird” and the emblematic “For What It’s Worth.” A strummy, dreamy take of “Jamaica Say You Will” with David Hidalgo’s amazing vocals leading the way pays tribute to singer/songwriter Jackson Browne. The band finds a creative way to deal with the unavoidable legacy of The Beach Boys by covering “Sail On, Sailor,” where David Hidalgo, Jr. plays drums and his father delivers a typical knockout vocal performance. The other looming presence for a band from East L.A. is War, and “The World is a Ghetto,” with Conrad’s son Jason Lozano on drums, highlights fresh angles thanks to vocals by Rosas, Hidalgo and special guest Little Willie G who was the singer on the original. Finally, in the album’s only original, Perez and Hidalgo, the band’s longtime songwriting team, salute their Los Angeles home in the easygoing title track. Although it’s a term that should be used judiciously if at all, Los Lobos are truly an American treasure, a band whose enduring chemistry, multi-dimensional musical talents and heartfelt instincts are unfailing and irreplaceable. – Robert Baird

Tracklist:
1-1. Los Lobos – Love Special Delivery (02:22)
1-2. Los Lobos – Misery (02:33)
1-3. Los Lobos – Bluebird (03:10)
1-4. Los Lobos – For What It’s Worth (03:28)
1-5. Los Lobos – Los Chucos Suaves (03:24)
1-6. Los Lobos – Jamaica Say You Will (03:16)
1-7. Los Lobos – Never No More (02:36)
1-8. Los Lobos – Native Son (03:10)
1-9. Los Lobos – Farmer John (02:29)
1-10. Los Lobos – Dichoso (03:36)
1-11. Los Lobos – Sail On, Sailor (03:20)
1-12. Los Lobos – The World Is A Ghetto (08:33)
1-13. Los Lobos – Flat Top Joint (02:51)
1-14. Los Lobos – Where Lovers Go (04:32)

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