Los Lobos. Gates Of Gold. Proper Records.

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Over the past few years it seemed that Los Lobos were marking time, their only releases being live affairs, one “unplugged” (Disconnected In New York) and a live rendition of their album Kiko. Both albums were in fact pretty good but fans yearning for the follow up to Tin Can Trust have had a five year wait for Gates Of Gold with the previews of the title song setting parts of the blogosphere on fire. The song, a mandolin driven mid tempo lurch was favourably compared to vintage Levon Helm, it’s theme of wonderment regarding an afterlife assessed as an acknowledgement of the band’s increasing years. It’s a fine song although a little too short for our liking, fizzling out just when we felt it should start to burn. As an introduction to the album it also sells itself short as around it Los Lobos deliver their usual heady mix of rock and blues and Mexican styles with several of the songs boasting an impressive sense of daring do pulling in jazz and psychedelic flurries and proving that they are still essential listening.

Made To Break Your Heart opens the album with a flourish. A bustling beat and jagged guitar underpins the vocals before shifting into a jackhammer riff and glorious guitar solo. When We Were Free utilises the studio to full effect with the guitars treated and distorted over a tremendous burbling bass and vibrant percussion. With Steve Berlin’s sax freewheeling along with jazz influenced guitar runs the song runs the gamut from prime time Joni Mitchell to Weather Report and there’s more sonic burps on There I Go, a song that sounds like Dr. John beaming in from outer space. It’s back to earth with a tremendous bump on the gutbucket rock and blues drive of Mis-Treater Boogie Blues, a veritable treat for the ears. There’s more boogie on Too Small Heart while I Believed In You goes back to basic 12 bar blues with barbed wire slide guitar and scuzzy rhythm giving it an all too authentic touch, you can well imagine the band, broke down but not busted hammering this out in a low-lit dive.

One gets the impression that Los Lobos at heart are still a bar band and could throw out songs like I Believed In You at the drop of a hat and do them better than most bands around. However writers David Hidalgo, Louis Perez and Cesar Rosas are also capable of tender ruminations alongside their perennial returns to their Latin roots. Poquito Para Aqui swings with a Columbian Cambian sway with the guitars reminiscent of Ry Cooder’s ventures into Cuban music while La Tumba Sera El Final is a cover of a Mexican song about following a lover to the tomb. As adept as ever at translating Latin themes into rock’n’roll they offer the excellent Magdalena, a rolling and rocky blues number with tumbling guitar and a wonderful juggernaut thrust halfway as they sing of Mary Magdalene. Finally, Song Of The Sun is a creation myth that opens with acoustic guitar strums leading one to expect a folk rock song in the LA Topanga canyon style. Instead the band invest it with a powerful driving rhythm that recalls English rockers such as Richard Thompson and again the only fault here is that the song is all too short.

Overall Gates of Gold is on a par with Tin Can Trust and one can imagine that if they were to concentrate on the concentrated excellence of songs such as Song Of The Sun and Gates Of Gold Los Lobos could come up with an Americana classic.

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Los Lobos. Disconnected In New York City. Proper Records

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The mighty Los Lobos have been around for forty years now and to celebrate this fact they’ve decided to release Disconnected, an (almost) all acoustic (Conrad Lorenzo doggedly sticks to electric bass and Steve Berlin tinkles an electric keyboard when he’s not honking sax) performance. Cherry picking from their catalogue they run through what amounts to a best of collection which misses out on their turbo charged electric drive but delivers solidly in terms of energy and excitement. Unplugged or not the Los Lobos sound remains a juggernaut when required with the twin percussion engine room driving them forward while their more reflective numbers benefit from the acoustic presentation with David Hildago, Louie Perez and Cesar Romero trading licks.
For anyone who’s a fan of the band these offerings will be like manna from heaven as they run through favourites such as I Got To Let You Know (from Will The Wolf Survive) up to the title song from their last release, Tin Can Trust. With the inevitable Mexican excursions scattered throughout they display much of what makes them unique, the pile driving pummel of The Neighbourhood, the smooth jazz of Oh Yeah and the tenderness of Tears of God while the live interplay on the likes of La Venganza De Los Pelados and Set Me Free (Rosa Lee) shows a band at the top of their form and generally having a blast. They close the album with their brush with fame, Richie Valen’s La Bamba which they couple with an excellent rendition of The Rascals’ Good Lovin‘, the pair fitting together perfectly like hand in glove and a rousing end to a great disc.
Disconnected is available as the single disc reviewed here or in a deluxe version with an addition CD and DVD. Check out the video below.

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Round Up Reviews

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Let’s hear it for the girls. Oops, sexism aside here’s a slew of albums received recently from a bunch of great female artists. One thing you can say about Americana is that there’s a decent ratio of male/female artists with 9 out of 20 women in the current EuroAmericana chart including three of the albums reviewed here.


First up is Ashleigh Flynn, originally from Kentucky and now based in Portland Oregon with her third album, American Dream (Home Perm Records) and a bit of a dream it is too. Flynn has a truly fine voice, well suited for these songs with a little bit of backwoods twang and a little bit Sarah Jones smokiness in there she makes it all seem effortless. The ten self-penned songs are all excellent from the poppy Mystery to the hard luck story of Isaac on 3rd and Burnside. To top it all Flynn has gathered a great band of musicians with fine contributions from Paul Brainard (Richmond Fontaine) on pedal steel and trumpet. The upright bass, played by Jim Bromberg is an important part of the equation but there is some fine fiddle and Dobro flying throughout. The Seventh Sea is a perfect example of the picking and playing here with Flynn’s vocals betraying her Kentucky background. A fine album indeed.
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Listen The 7th Sea

In a similar vein is Lynne Hanson, based in Canada, originally from the American south. She too fronts a fine band of pickers and writes all the songs on Once The Sun Goes Down. Where Flynn’s album has an organic feel around the production, this album has a burnished feel with David Baxter’s production similar to Daniel Lanois’ trademark sound. Guitars ripple and burn while the percussion has a brooding quality to it best heard in Here we Go Again. Hanson’s voice is planted firmly in front and on a song like No More Rain she recalls early kd lang but the best elements here are the slower pieces. Somewhere A Lonely Flower is a sublime, impressionistic account of a trip to London while the last song, Lilacs Dancing, catches a romance in the moment it starts. Riptide is a sinewy snarl of a song with evil sounding guitar over a ripple of banjo. Again, a cracking listen.
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Listen Here We Go Again


Tara Linda’s Tortilla Western Serenade is a different kettle of fish altogether. Linda defines her music as tortilla western, “a musical genre blending spaghetti western, rock and Tex-Mex styles; roots music influenced by the land and stories of the American Southwest. So far so good. This boils down to a collection of songs, some with the rock inspiration to the fore as on the fabulous opener, Muse’s Duel with its twang guitar and mariarchi horns which is incredibly invigorating. Dream out Loud is another guitar-based song that is sexy and sinister while Crossroads showcases the guitar playing of Az Samed as it grumbles menencingly. This approach reaches its apogee on Leavin’ Texas (Drivin’ Slow) where LA punk inspired guitar and screeching Mexican horns collide
A good part of the album however is more restrained. Songs about historical Mexican figures (Teresita de Cabora, Padre Kino) have a more traditional “conjunto “ (the button accordion, the bajo sexto) approach. That some of the accordion is played by Flaco Jiminez is a recommendation in itself. For a debut album this is impressive and is heartily recommended for anyone into Calexico, Los Lobos or even Ry Cooder.
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Listen Muse\'s Duel


Finally we have Annie Keating with Water Tower View. Keating comes from a folkier side with an earthy delivery, her vocals husky, at times sounding like a female John Prine, at others reminiscent of the frailty of Melanie Safka. Her subjects are the usual folk topics, tales of losers for the most part and one might wonder what more there is to say about the underbelly of American life. However Keating has the ability to take a well worn scenario such as gambling in On the Loose and breathe new life into it.
With some very sympathetic backing from a variety of players all of these songs beg to be heard but the standout songs are The Borderline with a very restrained backdrop and Keating’s vulnerability well to the fore and the closing Scene I/Scene II which, as the title suggests, is like an aural movie. Intimate and engaging, an excellent recording.
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Listen The Borderline

Last Buds of May

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Mars Arizona is a state of mind as opposed to an actual place and is occupied by this duo comprised of Paul Knowles and Nicole Storto. Their fourth album, High Desert, on Big Barn Records, is a fine slice of harmonic country rock. Previous releases have featured the likes of Al Perkins and David Grisman which might give a clue as to where this pair hail from musically. There are distorted fuzzy guitars and harmonies straight from the CSN&Y songbook. This is most evident on “Can we Turn this Page” which starts off with some snatched archived newspeak on anti Vietnam demos before launching into what is basically a protest song straight from the sixties. With cover versions of songs from that period including the stones’ “Sweet Virginia” and the Dead’s “Must have Been the Roses” there is a comfortable wallowing feeling for anyone who was around in those days. However with songs like the opener “Glad To Be Here” with its triumphant pedal steel sound and the John Prine like “Alabama Bound” there is plenty here to catch the ear of anyone looking to get a fix of some finely delivered country rock.
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Glad To Be Here


In a similar time warp are Arizona crew Prophet and The Cowboys of Apocalypse who have a predominately acoustic epic sound that recalls the desert soundscape captured in Zabriskie Point all those years ago on their album The Edge. Mainman “Prophet” is a veteran of US metal band St. Madness but here he trips out on his admiration for the edgier side of country. Songs like “The Edge” are like Morricone mixed with early Hawkwind, believe it or not. A dramatic telling with Spanish guitar curlicues and lonesome harmonica give this song a spooky, er, edge. Prophet is not above some shitkicking however and “BBQ” is a turbo charged country romp with guitar that could be from the likes of Warner E Hodges while “High As Hell” is downright mean. “Goodnight Angel” is the star here, a song that one could imagine mark Lanegan covering. Guitars ripple while Prophet growls as if Roky Erickson had crawled from the desert. Kind of weird, king of Gothic but if anyone wonders what Lemmy might have sounded like if he came from Death Valley instead of Ladbroke Grove here’s a chance to find out.
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Goodnight Angel


Winter are a Swedish band fronted by the eponymous Anna-Lena Winter who writes some cracking songs and delivers them with a classic vocal style. Their last album, Ten Songs, got great reviews and they should repeat the trick here. The songs are radio friendly Americana rock in the vein of Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers with fizzing guitars and swirling keyboard. A song such as “Crazy” is a hit waiting to be heard, gutsy and bold. While Winter can evoke the smoky drawl of Lucinda Williams (on Run) she can also be precociously seductive as on the lazily swung “Real Gone.” Guitarist Fredrik Lidkin plays heroically throughout but the drumming of Abbe Abrahamsson must get a mention also. His playing on the hypnotic wash of “A Minute Away” is a delight. Best song here however is “Book of Love” which is a perfect little song about the trials and tribulations of love where the band excel.
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Crazy

The Orbitsuns from Detroit are a down and dirty country punk band with a fine line in songs about boozing and other nefarious deeds. They look and sound like the type of band in a Hollywood movie playing to the baddest bunch of mean muthas but who turn out to be even badder. With a sound ranging from the propulsive drive one associates with Los Lobos to some wild r’n’b inspired country picking this lot look and sound mean. “Trains” and “Boozehound” are the songs that most resemble Los Lobos with the guitars slicing across a great drum sound on a pair of songs that are no slouches. “Who You Looking Pretty For Today” evokes the spirit of Doug Sahm with Spanish guitar and an inspired groove while “Church on Sunday” is a honky tonkin’ romp through the old hell raisin’ church going dichotomy that has inspired many a great song. Coming to the UK in July it’s a pity there are no Scottish gigs that I can see however the band have some fine videos on their website that whet the thirst for what one would presume to be a great live experience. The album might be a poor second to seeing them but you could string a net up between you and the hi-fi and then throw bottles at it while it’s playing.
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Booze Hound