Los Lonely Boys: the Texican Rock’n’Roll

The name is Los Lonely Boys, a powerful threesome, the Garza brothers, of basic rock formation and purveyors of what they call - Texican Rock’n’Roll. It initially sounded fairly standard Hard Rock of the 1970s [oldest brother also looks on par to audition for Deep Purple of the time] with a guitar solo that suddenly grew into this huge Texidelica and then turned their attention to a tune that would make Santana very proud.

The Garza brothers are Henry on guitar, Jojo on bass, and Ringo on drums and have been making music together before the youngest could write properly. Their initial professional experience came from backing their father but soon evolved into this unit that could combine many a genre into one seamless entity that touches your heart as much as the other senses.

Meshing diverse sounds - sources as varied as blues and country - performed with seasoned ease. The rhythm section of Jojo and Ringo works on a bloodline level, a relationship you’ll hardly locate in non-related outfits to provide a titanium platform for Henry to do his axe-magic. Jojo uses six-stringed bass to allow himself to play chords while his bro is flying over the frets like they were a skidpan. [The role similarly provided by The Who’s late bassist John Entwistle who had to keep melody going while Pete Townshend was ‘Windmilling’ or guitar-smashing!]

Still, it doesn’t appear that Townshend was one of the models for Henry although it is easy to see/hear that Jimi Hendrix was one great inspiration, as well as the fellow Texan ‘Axe-Gods’ Johnny Winter, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Freddie King… The other influences the band admits to are the rock pioneers such as Chuck Berry and Fats Domino as well as Richie Valens, and the music’s greatest combo - The Beatles.

Los Lonely Boys’ self-titled debut album is full of songs that are arranged and executed in such a manner it is often hard to believe there are only three of them, topped with luscious vocal harmonies - all three bros are on the mike-duty - they can be as intense as a nubile butt or as vital as “the dog’s nuts”, in the words of the record company exec who introduced them. Ask no less an authority than Willie Nelson, who has called Los Lonely Boys his favourite band and invited them to record this album at his own Pedernales studio.

Show-wise, they’ve taken every Rock cliché - bass solo performed with the instrument flat on the floor and shut eyes, lead played ‘three-hand’ while bass is fingered with the left and then ‘four-hand’, guitars behind necks, one-handed - and made them their own. The slightly Latino flavour is firmly welded atop solid rock foundation for a total Dr Feelgood experience.

Behind some regular titles, such as ‘Senorita’, ‘Heaven’, ‘Hollywood’, ‘Tell Me Why’, are some very good songs. No genius needed to figure out why Los Lonely Boys’ have sold 1.7 million of their debut album across America in about four months. This is a disc that is gem-packed with groovyttitude - it is like the Dancing Halls of the 1960s, my gran says - and playing that is first class. The Garza Bros should be busting your radio waves shortly, if there is any justice.

"Their music is a soulful mix of razor-sharp blues-guitar riffs and impassionate Tex-Mex rock," opined New Yorker.

"They are in total command. The steamy Rock'n'Roll of their performances is immediate," concurred Chicago Sun-Times.

Los Lonely Boys’ music grabs you instantly and won’t letting go until you thoroughly enjoyed yourself, we can simply add.