Print edition: 
Los Lobos certainly is a band to be admired and emulated by younger musicians. Now more than 30 years into its career, the band from East Los Angeles has created one of the most enviable catalogs of music in all of rock and roll, with an unbroken string of albums that have ranged from good to spectacular.
The band’s unique brand of rock music has remained rooted in blues, R&B and, of course, Mexican music, while embracing a sense of adventure that has seen the group bring a terrific talent of songwriting and a love of sonic and stylistic experimentation to the party.
All that said, the group’s saxophonist/keyboardist, Steve Berlin, has a word of advice for young musicians who want to make an album: Don’t do what Los Lobos did in making “Tin Can Trust.” The band went into the studio with no songs written for the new CD.
“Certainly, I wouldn’t recommend it for any young musicians out there,” Berlin said in a recent phone interview. “It really isn’t a smart way to work and record, but we make it work somehow.
“We’ve had a few (albums) like this, where we’ve really had nothing,” he said. “ ‘Colossal Head’ comes to mind. Sometimes it just happens that way. We have to kind of pick a day in the future where we’re going to go in. Sometimes we luck out and guys show up with songs, and sometimes, like this one, guys show up with nothing.”
One reason Berlin and his bandmates (guitarist/multi-instrumentalist/singer David Hidalgo, guitarist Louie Perez, guitarist/singer Cesar Rosas and bassist Conrad Lozano) sometimes end up in the studio before their songs do is that the band maintains a busy touring schedule. The group will perform Tuesday at Wichita’s Orpheum Theatre.
But there’s another major factor in the songwriting output.
“The writing process for us doesn’t come terribly easy,” Berlin said. “It’s a situation where the guys really have to know, they almost have to be told, ‘OK, it’s writing time now.’ And then they think about it in that regard. It’s not like they’re writing all of the time.”
As usual, though, “Tin Can Trust” became an all’s-well-that-ends-well situation, as Los Lobos delivered a solid effort. The group’s primary songwriting team of Hidalgo-Perez delivered six songs. They include the stellar opening track, “Burn It Down,” a rootsy and soulful track that includes a guest vocal from Susan Tedeschi, the title song, a plaintive but punchy ballad that deals with the hard times people are experiencing in the recession, and “The Lady and the Rose,” an evocative mid-tempo track spiced by some tangy acoustic guitar.
“Tin Can Trust” falls firmly in the rootsy and organic category. But it was not business-as-usual when it came to how the CD was made. The band took a new approach to recording, cutting the basic tracks live with all five band members (plus touring drummer Cougar Estrada) playing together in a single room instead of assembling finished takes an instrument at a time.
“Honestly, we hadn’t recorded that way ever,” Berlin said.
Because they were recorded live, the “Tin Can Trust” songs figure to translate well in concert. What new songs appear in the set, though, will vary because Los Lobos changes its set list from night to night.
“It just sort of depends on the vibe of the audience and where they’re at and where we feel they’re at,” Berlin said. “We try not to do the same show twice. The other thing, too, is we have a spot on our website if people want to request a song. We try to accommodate to the extent that we can, as long as it’s one that we know and can play it.”
