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Los Lobos

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Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

It was 31 years ago when Los Lobos Del Este De Los Angeles released their first proper album, Just Another Band From East L.A. The band, better know simply as Los Lobos, has been a regular visitor to these parts since the early ‘80s, sometimes touring behind a new release, sometimes not. They’ve always drawn on an eclectic collection of tunes, mostly original, but with select covers including everything from traditional Mexican tunes to Grateful Dead songs.

They return to the Van Duzer Theatre this Sunday having recently released Los Lobos Goes Disney, a kids record that, “doesn’t sound like a kids record,” according to sax man Steve Berlin. “It just sounds like Los Lobos playing funky old songs, so I imagine over time we’ll probably be integrating some of those songs into our set.”

Now doing Disney is not new to the band: 20 years ago they covered “I Wanna Be Like You” from The Jungle Book for Stay Awake, record producer Hal Willner’s brilliant (and dark) take on the Disney songbook. And in the ‘90s they did a kids record, Papa’s Dream, for SoHum-based Music for Little People, so that’s not new either.

How well does it work this time out? It’s a mixed bag in more ways than one. The rockin’ Spanish-language version of “Heigh-Ho” gets things off to a rollicking start. The repeat of “I Wanna Be Like You” is effectively transformed with traditional Mexican instruments - guitarrones, jaranas and bajo sextos - plus a dirty sax solo by Berlin. They reach a high point with “Not in Nottingham,” a song written by Roger Miller for the cartoon version of Robin Hood. A simple strummed melody backs David Hidalgo as he sings a song of longing for place that achieves the feel of an outtake from How Will the Wolf Survive? It’s followed by the album low points, a cheesy take on “The Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room,” and a reggae-ish “Grin Grinning Ghosts.” Both numbers are drawn from Disneyland attractions; neither is a good song. They get back on track with “I’ll Go Sailing No More,” a Randy Newman song from Toy Story, although is sounds a whole lot like Newmans’ version. And so it goes, “The Ugly Bug Ball,” a disposable number from a forgotten Haley Mills movie, is transformed into a Cesar Rosas-style rocker; “Bella Note,” the Peggy Lee/Sonny Burke tune from Lady and the Tramp, is delivered pretty much as written. “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah” gets a bluesy folk-rock treatment that works. The instrumental closer combining “When You Wish Upon a Star” and “It’s a Small World” finds the band doing what they do best, vamping on familiar songs, making them their own with electric guitars, sax, even Tex-Mex accordion. Granted these are all songs written for kids, but you forget that much of the time.

Will they be playing the Disney stuff when the play here? Berlin hints that they might, but the Arcata portion of their tour will be “semi-acoustic,” which rules out most of the record. My guess is they’ll play one or two of the songs, thus allowing for the post-song, pre-intermission announcement of merch available in the lobby. And frankly the record would make a fine gift for the young Los Lobos fan on your holiday list.

CenterArts presents Los Lobos in concert on Sunday, Nov. 29, in HSU’s Van Duzer Theatre; showtime at 8 p.m. Tickets are $45 or $35 for HSU students and are available online at centerarts.humboldt.edu. While you could normally get them from HSU box office (826-3928), it’s closed until after the Thanksgiving holiday, instead they will be available from The Works.

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