Los Lonely Boys hold fast to Mexican roots

“Everyone has heard about Santana, and Ritchie Valens’ “La Bamba,” but sometimes I like to point out that one of rock’s early hits, “Let’s Dance,” was written and first recorded by Chris Montez, a Mexican-American from Southern California. But when I asked Los Lonely Boys’ white-hot guitarist Henry Garza Jr. if he knew that “Let’s Dance” was covered by the Ramones on their first album, he was unimpressed. “The Ramones?” he said, “Sunny and the Sunliners recorded it, too, man!”

Garza’s reference to the San Antonio native and Texas rock legend Sunny Ozuna showed me how much I had to learn about the history of Chicano rock. Still, Los Lonely Boys are not only the living memory of Spanglish-speaking bands, they also embody the future of the Texican sound. “

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