Los Lobos

"Los Lobos is a slice of pure East L.A. that I never even knew existed. Chris Morris is a wildass ethnomusicologist, social critic, raconteur, and L.A. music bon vivant for the new millennium. Viva Chris-El Gato de East Los." -- James Ellroy, author of Perfidia and The L.A. Quartet "With the exception of U2, no other band has stayed on top of its game as long as Los Lobos... This is what happens when five guys create a magical sound, then stick together for thirty [now forty] years to see how far it can take them." -- Previous review, Rolling Stone " ... pioneering border fusionists, multiple Grammy winners, and one of the two indisputably most influential Chicano musical acts in history, along with Ritchie Valens." -- Previous review, Los Angeles Times "These peerless musicians created nothing less than the soundtrack of the Mexican American experience." -- Charles Ramirez Berg, author of Latino Images in Film

From the East Los Angeles barrio to international stardom, Los Lobos traces the musical evolution of a platinum-selling, Grammy Award–winning band that has ranged through virtually the entire breadth of American vernacular music, from traditional Mexican

Los Lobos leaped into the national spotlight in 1987, when their cover of “La Bamba” became a No. 1 hit. But what looked like an overnight achievement to the band’s new fans was actually a way station in a long musical journey that began in East Los Angeles in 1973 and is still going strong. Across four decades, Los Lobos (Cesar Rosas, Conrad Lozano, David Hidalgo, Louie Pérez, and Steve Berlin) have ranged through virtually the entire breadth of American vernacular music, from rockabilly to primal punk rock, R&B to country and folk, Mexican son jarocho to Tex-Mex conjunto and Latin American cumbia. Their sui generis sound has sold millions of albums and won acclaim from fans and critics alike, including three Grammy Awards.

Los Lobos, the first book on this unique band, traces the entire arc of the band’s career. Music journalist Chris Morris draws on new interviews with Los Lobos members and their principal collaborators, as well as his own reporting since the early 1980s, to recount the evolution of Los Lobos’s music. He describes the creation of every album, lingering over highlights such as How Will the Wolf Survive?, La Pistola y El Corazon, and Kiko, while following the band’s trajectory from playing Mexican folk music at weddings and dances in East L.A. to international stardom and major-label success, as well as their independent work in the new millennium. Giving one of the longest-lived and most-honored American rock bands its due, Los Lobos celebrates the expansive reach and creative experimentalism that few other bands can match.