Since breaking onto the scene with their smash single, “Heaven,” it’s been hard to exactly measure how big Los Lonely Boys have become. This past Monday night however, it was an easier measurement to assess. Los Lonely Boys are as big as a 10-story, 180-yard wide building.
Okay, so that’s less of an assessment of the band’s grandeur and more a physical measurement of their visages projected on the new titanic video board when they performed at halftime of the Dallas Cowboys’ Monday Night Football game against the Carolina Panthers.
“We really want to go out there, have fun and show our colors, because our blood is bleeding blue,” Jojo Garza says over the phone prior to the performance. Jojo says he and the rest of Los Lonely Boys, consisting of his brothers Henry and Ringo, have been lifelong fans of the Cowboys and first formed a relationship after the breakthrough of the Grammy-winning “Heaven.” On Monday they took that relationship to the next level, serenading the 100,000 or so fans in attendance with the debut of a song they wrote specifically for “America’s Team,” aptly titled, “Let’s Go, Cowboys.”
“We paid tribute to a team we’ve always respected,” Jojo says. “Hopefully they’ll be able to do something with [the song], put it on TV or the Web site or something.”
That tune is more than likely to be shelved when the trio makes its way into Redskins country to play The Birchmere this week (Oct. 5 – 6). Instead, those in attendance will hear a few more familiar tunes … (no, one of them won’t be “Hail to the Redskins.”)
To commemorate the 40th anniversary of a watershed year in American history, Los Lonely Boys are set to release an EP of covers, titled 1969. The disc covers five songs from the year, ranging from The Beatles’ “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window” to The Doors’ “Roadhouse Blues.”
“We picked five great tunes and we’re very proud of them. They all made a connection to Los Lonely Boys in some way,” Jojo says.
The most notable is likely Carlos Santana’s “Evil Ways.” The Mexican guitar virtuoso has long served as a mentor for the band. Los Lonely Boys recorded “I Don’t Want to Lose Your Love” for his album All That I Am.
“Santana has been a major influence in our lives for some time now and he continues to be,” Jojo says. “Plus, it’s just a really cool song, you know?”
All of the tunes on 1969 contain some of Los Lonely Boys’ signature flair, but that doesn’t drown out the qualities that made the songs classics in the first place.
“There were a lot of songs that we thought about doing that you just can’t touch that are too perfect, and I’m not saying these songs aren’t, but we thought we had the ability to put the Los Lonely Boys stamp on it,” Jojo says. “Los Lonely Boys are capable of playing anything, and I mean that in a humble way, it’s just that we’ve never concerned ourselves with genres too much. We grew up on everything from traditional music to Metallica and Willie Nelson.”
The Birchmere shows will also offer another twist in addition to a smattering of cover songs in the set, as the brothers will perform acoustically.
“We tried it a little while ago and people liked it,” Jojo says of the acoustic format. “It’s going to be a little more intimate and it’s going to be a good show, be a little more raw. It’s going to be a challenge, but it’s going to be fun. Los Lonely Boys aren’t afraid of a little challenge.”
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Los Lonely Boys perform at the Birchmere Oct. 5 and 6. Tickets are $45. For more on Los Lonely Boys, visit www.loslonelyboys.com.
