Los Lobos breaks from the pack – Lowell, MA – Interview with Steve Berlin
By KATHLEEN DEELY, Sun Staff
Los Lobos plays Boarding House Park tonight.
Los Lobos came up on the mean streets of East L.A., but they have a dose of Lowell in their blood, even if they don’t know it.
The band’s sax player, Steve Berlin, lets it slip by phone that their first concept album, out this month, is called The Town and the City.
“Named after the Kerouac book?” I ask.
“Yes. You are one of the first to get that reference,” says Berlin, who at this point doesn’t know that Jack Kerouac hailed from Lowell.
When I break the news to him, along with directions to Kerouac Park, a block away from Boarding House Park where the band plays tonight, he is audibly excited.
“That is very cool. Our drummer is reading On the Road right now.”
It’s an appropriate story for this traveling rhythm-and- blues band, which has been on the road steadily since they formed in 1973.
Founded by Dave Hidalgo and Louis Perez, Los Lobos, which means The Wolves in Spanish, started as a good-time wedding and bar band until they had the good fortune to cover the Ritchie Valens hit “La Bamba”
in 1987. That upbeat wedding song secured them a permanent notch on the pop culture rung.
Berlin said getting the rights to that song for the movie by the same name about Valens must have been written in the stars.
“We knew Ritchie’s family in the early days. Anytime we were in Santa Cruz, we would hang out at their house. We were seen as part of their family. So when it came time to agree to the movie rights, the family put in the stipulation that Los Lobos would do the song or they wouldn’t hand it over.”
Call it a lucky break, Los Lobos made this celebratory song their own. And unlike many bands that refuse to play the songs that made them big, Los Lobos does not hold back.
“It’s not our most favorite song to play, but we are human. It’s not a double-edged sword. We got to experience life as a hit band,” said Berlin,
It’s an experience that has eluded them since.
Although they get traction on satellite and college radio these days, they are almost ignored by commercial radio.
“They were big supporters once upon a time. Now they can’t play us.
They fall victim to the corporations that tell them what to play,”
said Berlin, who lives in Portland, Ore.
With a Spanish influence, rock and soul backbone, Los Lobos does not easily fit into a genre — the type that record and radio companies are governed by.
Clearly, the game has changed since the ’80s and Berlin is glad the band broke into the big time when it did.
“The most notable thing is we have two great singers, two voices and songwriters. In the ’70s and ’80s, to have one good singer was amazing. Anything beyond was unbelievable,” said Berlin, who joined Los Lobos after jumping ship from The Blasters, a rockabilly band.
Since then, they’ve been prolific, coming out with new albums frequently — the most notable Kiko, a breakthrough, dreamy album considered their most accomplished. A greatest hits CD, Wolf Tracks, was released this year.
After 33 years of touring steadily and creating new sounds, this group of 50-year-olds is not looking to be the most downloadable band on iTunes. Hits are not in their playbook.
“I don’t think in these terms. We have bigger fish to fry. The music business and pop industry is not something we try to figure out,”
said Berlin.
As long as they remain true to their mission of keeping music spiritual, Los Lobos will be satisfied with their place in the annals of rock.
“I’ll take a 30-year career to 30 minutes in the spotlight and then you are flipping burgers,” said Berlin.
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