Los Lobos To Pay Tribute to Hometown of Los Angeles with New Album Native Sons Announced for July 2021 Release and Shares New Songs

American rock band Los Lobos will return with a new cover album titled Native Sons on July 30 via New West Records. The record is promised to be a 13-track love letter to the band’s home city of Los Angeles, and follows 2019’s Llego Navidad, their previous full length offering. The group looks to channel other famous and storied Los Angeles based acts, names like Thee Midniters, Jackson Browne, Little Feat, the Beach Boys and Buffalo Springfield, among others.

Native Sons will be available across digital platforms, compact disc, and standard black vinyl. A Coke Bottle Clear Vinyl Edition limited to 4,000 copies worldwide will be available at Independent Record Stores while a Brown Vinyl Edition limited to 1,000 copies is available for pre-order today via New West Records.

In addition to the album’s announcement, Variety premiered the first taste of what’s to come with new Los Lobos reinterpretations of “Love Special Delivery,” originally by Thee Midniters, and the Beach Boys classic “Sailor On Sailor.” Of “Love Special Delivery,” Los Lobos’ David Hidalgo said in a press statement, “We grew up on Thee Midniters and felt like they were representing us, so their music means a lot.” The song is pegged down as Native Sons opening tune.

As for “Sailor on Sailor,” Steve Berlin said via a press statement that it “seemed like it would be easy, but once we broke the eggshell it revealed itself to be a lot more complex. The genius of so many of these records is all the layers that meld together in a way that isn’t very obvious at first.”

Over the last five decades, the East L.A.-bred Los Lobos has made an indelible mark on music history by exploring an enormous diversity of genres—rock-and-roll and R&B, surf music and soul, mariachi and música norteña, punk rock and country—and building a boldly unpredictable sound all their own. The band went on to garner international stardom in 1987 when their interpretation of Ritchie Valens’ “La Bamba” topped the charts stateside and abroad. For more on Los Lobos, check out their celebratory collaboration with members of The Flaming Lips for rescoring of Demille’s Ten Commandments.

photo credit: Owen Ela