Los Lobos - Gates of Gold (2015)

After celebrating their 40th anniversary with the cleverly titled 2013 live album Disconnected In New York City, the hard working, constantly touring band, Los Lobos - David Hidalgo, Louie Perez, Cesar Rosas, Conrad Lozano and Steve Berlin - leaps headfirst into their fifth decade with an invitation to join them as they open fresh and exciting new Gates of Gold, their first full length studio album since 2010's Tin Can Trust (a Grammy nominee for Best Americana Album). We're a Mexican American band, and no word describes America like immigrant. Most of us are children of immigrants, so it's perhaps natural that the songs we create celebrate America in this way." So says Louie Perez, the "poet laureate" and primary wordsmith of Los Lobos, when describing the songs on the band's new album. The dynamic songwriting, deeply poetic lyrics, thoughtful romantic and spiritual themes and eclectic blend of styles on the 11 track collection has resulted in an American saga in the rich literary tradition of legendary authors John Steinbeck and William Faulkner. Yet true to form, these typically humble musical wolves started in on the project without any grand vision or musical roadmap. Over 30 years after Los Lobos' major label breakthrough How Will The Wolf Survive? - their 1984 album that ranks #30 on Rolling Stones list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s. Louie Perez, once called their powerhouse mix of rock, Tex-Mex, country, folk, R&B, blues and traditional Spanish and Mexican music "the soundtrack of the barrio." Three decades, two more Grammys, the global success of "La Bamba" and thousands of rollicking performances across the globe later, Los Lobos is surviving quite well - and still jamming with the same raw intensity as they had when they began in that garage in 1973. They don't get in the studio as often as they did a few decades ago - Tin Can Trust came four years after their previous album of all originals, The Town And The City - but when they do, the results are every bit as culturally rich, musically rocking and lyrically provocative as they were back in the day.

TRACKLIST
1. Made To Break Your Heart (4:44)
2. When We Were Free (5:09)
3. Mis-Treater Boogie Blues (3:09)
4. There I Go (3:15)
5. Too Small Heart (3:51)
6. Poquito Para Aqui (3:54)
7. Gates of Gold (3:50)
8. La Tumba Sera el Final (2:38)
9. Song of the Sun (3:40)
10. I Believed You So (4:23)
11. Magdalena (4:11)
12. Nachas (Instrumental Demo) (2:53)
13. Prenda del Alma (Live) (3:55)