Wolf Tracks: The Best Of Los Lobos – Blogcritics .org

Nik Dirga
The Wolf Tracks: The Best of Los Lobos

Los Lobos isn’t just “La Bamba.” That impossibly catchy 1987 hit tune defines them to many, but the tapestry this pioneering Latino roots-rock band has weaved is broader than that. The new CD Wolf Tracks: The Best Of Los Lobos presents a handy, compact primer to their sound.

The band from east L.A. absorbs elements of R&B, Mexicana, blues, folk and plain ol’ rock ‘n’ roll into a sonic stew that’s uniquely American.

Accordions dance with saxophones, guitars and marimbas with mandolin.

Frontman David Hidalgo’s broad, booming voice can croon traditional tunes as well as big-blast rockers in English or Spanish or both, wringing real heart out of his songs. Together with Cesar Rosas, Conrad Lozano, Louie Pérez and Steve Berlin, Hidalgo crafts an open, inviting sound that’s steeped in the dusty, multi-cultural soil of Southern California, a land that’s soaked up the influence of dozens of immigrant cultures.

The band’s best tunes tell little all-American tales about people from the neighborhood, such as “One Time One Night,” which beautifully sums up an immigrant’s hopes and fears. Wolf Tracks follows Los Lobos from their earliest EP in 1983 up to 2002’s Good Morning Aztlán, with extended stops at some of their biggest hits, 1984’s How Will The Wolf Survive and 1987’s By The Light of the Moon. It’s here you find the band trying on new styles left and right, yet never sounding like anything but themselves.

The very traditional sounding Spanish-language “La Pistola Y El Corazon”

sounds timeless and elegant, while the lonesome bluesy ballad “A Matter of Time” could come from nearly any culture, so universal are its lyrics. Other real highlights on Wolf Tracks are the moody, semi- psychedelic “Kiko and the Lavender Moon” from 1992, which fades in and out like a gauzy dream, while 2002’s “Good Morning Aztlán” thunders along like the gritty soundtrack to a road trip down never-ending sun- drenched dirt roads. The CD also includes the live gem “Volver, Volver”

and the previously unreleased track “Border Town Girl.”

And of course, there’s “La Bamba,” the remake of Richie Valens’ hit classic from the film of the same name. It’s still a hooky treat, and it’s so addictive that I swear I didn’t ever notice until recently it doesn’t contain a word of English (I admit I’m not always real observant). “La Bamba” doesn’t sum up Los Lobos’ sound — no one song here really can — but it’s still a great single.

With 20 tracks trying to cover a 30-plus year career, Wolf Tracks can’t quite be comprehensive, and die-hards will surely have favorites that didn’t get on. The earlier box set Just Another Band From East L.A.

remains the definitive overview for those who want to dig deeper. Wolf Tracks only has three tunes from after 1992, covering three albums’

worth of songs. The band’s output has slowed since their 1980s heyday, yet they’ve still put out some solid material on later albums.

Yet for a novice to Los Lobos, Wolf Tracks is a winning survey of an eclectic legacy, one of the richest roots-rock bands around. Wolf Tracks is worth howling about.