Los Lonely Boys bring Texas tang to town

By Renee Graham, Globe Staff, 8/29/2003

Henry Garza, singer and guitarist of Los Lonely Boys, proudly describes his band's sound as "Texican rock 'n' roll," a tangy fusion of all the music -- rock, blues, country, and Mexican conjunto -- that he and his brothers learned and loved growing up in the Lone Star State.

"That's what's great about Texas -- you've got so many different styles and tastes wrapped up in one place," Garza says. "See, we've got this musical burrito theory. We're like the tortilla, and inside the tortilla we put the knowledge that we've gathered from all the greats -- Stevie Ray Vaughan, Carlos Santana, B. B. King, Ritchie Valens, Willie Nelson, the Beatles, Chuck Berry, and Fats Domino. It goes on and on. We throw it all in this tortilla, roll it up, and feed it to the world. And, hopefully, everyone likes it and comes back for seconds."

Los Lonely Boys' self-titled debut CD, released earlier this month, merits repeated helpings. Its dozen songs slide from the blues guitar pyrotechnics of "Crazy Dream" to the soulful "Velvet Sky" to the scorched Latin rocker "Onda." Reminiscent of Los Lobos, with original compositions in both English and Spanish by Garza and his brothers -- singer-bassist JoJo and singer-drummer Ringo -- it's the kind of album that winks at the past without dissolving into a retro retread.

For years, Los Lonely Boys have been a buzz band around Texas. Recently, the band's CD release party at Antone's, a mecca of Austin's influential music scene, was a near mob scene, with more than 300 fans turned away at the door. Los Lonely Boys have attracted both Nelson, who has twice invited the band to perform at his all-star benefit concert Farm Aid, and the Texas House of Representatives, which declared last June 10 "Los Lonely Boys Day." The band will perform Sunday night at the House of Blues in Cambridge.

"We've never been so proud of a record, the way it sounds, the way it makes us feel when we hear it," says Garza, who at 25 is the oldest. (JoJo is 23, Ringo is 21.) "We've been doing this kind of music since we were little kids. We've never tried to be more this or more that. What you hear is what you get."

The Garzas still live in San Angelo, the small west Texas city where they grew up. In this city, which boasts both the nation's largest sheep auction and Miss Hattie's Bordello Museum, the brothers learned music from their father, Henry Sr., who led a band with his own siblings in the 1970s and 1980s. Their father's band played conjunto, which is similar to Tejano and popular in Texas and northern Mexico.

"When we were little kids, we used to go to dances and see him play, and we were just blown away," Garza said. "He taught me how to play guitar when I was 4 or 5 years old, and I wrote my first song when I was about 5 years old."

Hearing the somebody-done-somebody-wrong songs of his father, Garza thought every song had to be about "a girl leaving you or hurting you. So I wrote `She left me down by the corner store.' " By the time Garza was 8, he and his brothers were playing for tips in little cantinas and clubs around San Angelo.

"When [my father] gave me the guitar, I fell in love with it and knew right then and there at that young age I would be doing it," he said. "I knew nothing could keep me from playing music. My brothers were the same way. We're really blessed to be influenced by our father." Garza calls his father's reaction to his sons' success "over-the-top proud."

Los Lonely Boys, who took their name from a song written for them by their father, continued performing in and around their hometown and Austin, and their fan base steadily increased.

"They're really great songwriters, their three-part harmonies are great, and the fact that they're brothers is really cool because they have a great chemistry with each other onstage," said Mark Collins, a booking agent at Antone's, where the band has often played.

"They have a really cool, energetic vibe," he added. "Up there onstage, they're throwing their guitars around, and Ringo is breaking sticks left and right -- you gotta love it when the drummer finishes the show with both arms filled with broken wood chips from his drumsticks. When you see them live, you get the feeling this is something that's going to be big ."

A few years ago, their music caught the attention of Freddy Fletcher, who encouraged his uncle, the legendary singer-songwriter Nelson, to attend a Los Lonely Boys show. The Garzas thanked Nelson for coming -- and also raved about the singer's shirt, which was decorated with guitars.

"Three weeks later, him and his wife bought three identical shirts for us," Garza says. "That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

As a result of that friendship, the Garzas opened some gigs for Nelson, and they recorded their album at his Austin studio. (Nelson also plays guitar on the CD's final track, "La Contestacion.") Then he invited them to their biggest show ever at last year's Farm Aid.

"Last year, that was our first really big gig, and it was a little scary," Garza says. "This year, we're looking forward to it big time. Willie's been great to us."

What's also been great, according to Garza, is finding success with his brothers. While the history of popular music is festooned with fussin' and fightin' brothers from Ray and Dave Davies of the Kinks to the Black Crowes' Chris and Rich Robinson to Noel and Liam Gallagher of Oasis, Garza insists he and his brothers are not plagued by sibling tensions.

"It's weird -- we get along great," he says with a laugh. "We grew up together really close, really tight. We don't really have fights or anything like that. We pretty much see eye to eye."

That rapport, Garza says, really shines onstage. For him, it's the fulfillment of the dreams he had as a kid, when he would envision them smiling, dancing, and jamming "on a big ol' stage with all these bright lights and lots of people standing there.

"When people come to our shows, they're gonna see three brothers doing something their daddy taught them when they were real little," he said. "We've been living this our whole lives. People who see us should get ready to have a good time. They should get ready to taste some Texas."

Los Lonely Boys perform Sunday night at the House of Blues in Cambridge. Tickets are $9. For information, call 617-497-2229.