different bands and artists took to various ways of creating, thriving and dealing with this pandemic. what we have here is los lobos’ response, at least part of it. what started out as a side project to keep them busy and sharp, turned into a tribute to the bands and songwriters from los angeles that were early influences on their lives, careers, and music.

initially trading tracks over the internet, and then gradually getting back into the studio, they compiled over sixty songs, and then whittled it down to twelve that are presented here (plus one original – the title track). there will be a few artists recognizable to the mainstream crowd (jackson browne, buffalo springfield, beach boys), there are some chicano influences (thee midniters, lalo guerrero, willie bobo and mario paniaga) to give us some spice, and some garage rock like the premiers and the blasters (the latter of which were essential in getting los lobos their first break in the business).

the liner notes are great (again, this is why i buy cds and not downloads when i can), and help flesh out the process of the project. but they also give us their thoughts on each song and artist they chose. a quick example:

‘bluebird/for what it’s worth’ by buffalo springfield

when police clashed with young music club goers on the sunset strip in 1966, stephen stills wrote ‘for what it’s worth’. ‘bluebird’ was the follow up single. here the band flips the order and makes it a medley, with david replicating the searing guitars of both stephen stills (left channel) and neil young (right channel). steve: buffalo was a really big influence on the band. like los lobos, they were ployglots unique to their time. louie: we knew we wanted to do a buffalo springfield song, and ended up with two because we couldn’t decide: david: with ‘bluebird’, i have wanted to do that song since i was 15, and ‘for what it’s worth’ is still relevant today. when i was a teenager, buffalo springfield was one of my favorite bands. i just pitched the idea” ‘let’s see how close we can get to the originals. just for the fun of it’.

it’s pretty damn good.

just a real fun album that would go great with your next backyard barbeque.