Wolf Tracks - The Best of Los Lobos Review
Posted by John Malady on 03.16.2006
The East Los Angeles wolves have survived!
How many bands can say they have been around 32 years and are still making music together? Not many that's for sure, but a group of high school friends from East Los Angeles can make that claim. Los Lobos( Spanish for "The Wolves") have been making music together for 32 years and the new 1-disc compilation Wolf Tracks: The Best of Los Lobos spans that entire career giving a chronological set list of some of Los Lobos best work.
Los Lobos roots as a band lie in East L.A. and in a music Latina background, but upon listening to their music one can hear how they absorbed and integrated American music into their Latin music roots. Los Lobos are much more than a Latin rooted band, they are blues, country, rockabilly, R&B, progressive jazz, rock n'roll, and reggae as well. After meeting in high school and sharing a mutual love of music Los Lobos have never looked back after forming. Los Lobos are:
David Hidalgo- vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, accordion, violin, banjo, 6 string bass, piano, drums, and percussion Cesar Rosas- vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, and mandolin Conrad Lozano- electric and acoustic basses, fretless bass, guitarron, and vocals Louie Perez- drums, percussion, guitars, fraustophone, and vocals Steve Berlin- baritone, tenor, and soprano saxes, flute, harmonica, melodica, organ, clavinet, piano, synthesizers, and percussion
Every member of Los Lobos is a multi instrumentalist in some way which makes for a diverse palette of colors to choose from when writing music together. I think this is a reflection of them being a muti-cultural band as well.
As a compilation Wolf Tracks is a great listen. All sides of the band are showcased throughout 20 tracks including 1 unreleased song (Border Town Girl) which was recorded during the sessions for their 1990 album The Neighborhood. All the songs are presented in chronological order so if you are a casual fan that has wanted a good compilation of Los Lobos work this is the one for you and you get to here how they have progressed as musicians and songwriters from the beginning to now, which is the benefit of putting music in chronological order on compilations. There are tracks from their first E.P. released in 1983 and one of those tracks, "Anselma" , won the first Grammy for Best Mexican/American performance. Their first full length album How will the Wolf Survive? released in 1984 was critically acclaimed and put them on the music world map as a unique and versatile American band. That first album is represented here with 5 tracks. Every Los Lobos album after their debut is represented with 1-2 tracks each, all the way up to 2002's Good Morning Aztlan.
I listened to this compilation twice before writing this review because I am one of the many persons out there that knows of Los Lobos from their cover of the song La Bamba, which they recorded for the soundtrack to the motion picture of the same name, which was a biographical movie about Ritchie Valens (one of the first Latin music stars in America) whose life was cut short in a tragic plane crash that also killed music legend Buddy Holly amongst others. Outside of their cover of "La Bamba" I knew they had sung on other big named artists albums like Paul Simon's- Graceland and Elvis Costello's- King of America, but I really hadn't heard any of their songs before nor listened to one of their albums. What I took away from listening to this compilation and listening to Los Lobos for the first time is that they truly deserve their place in American music. Los Lobos are an extremely talented and diverse group whose songs are full of spirit and romantic wonder. Wolf Tracks: The Best of Los Lobos was a great listen and an education for me. It is a great place to start for someone who wants to know what Los Lobos are all about, and add some of their music to their own personal collection.
The 411: Wolf Tracks: The Best of Los Lobos celebrates an East Los Angeles band that has survived through all musical trends of the last 30 years and never lost their roots even when branching into other musical genres. It is all here from traditional Mexican music to bluesy rock n’roll, and everything in between. It is a great listen from front to back and harkens one back to the glory days of rock n’roll filled with that innocence that was still prevalent throughout the country in the 50’s. Los Lobos are an American band that celebrates America, which is and should always be a place of multi-cultural appreciation and coexistence, and I say let the celebration continue..
