Los Lobos Live TV Premiere: "Burn It Down"

Los Lobos appeared on The Tonight Show last night and premiered the opening cut from Tin Can Trust, the group's album that was released this week in physical and digital formats. "Burn It Down" features vocals and incendiary guitar from David Hidalgo.

TNOP highly encourages its readers to listen to the album in its entirety, courtesy NPR Music.

Los Lobos Returns With "Tin Can Trust"

If you have followed TNOP over the years, you know that Los Lobos is not "just another band from East L.A." The group's last release, The Town and The City, made our "best of" list in 2006. Now comes the long-awaited Tin Can Trust, which will be released on 3 August, along with a fully plugged-in tour starting with an appearance at Los Angeles' Greek Theatre tomorrow, 11 July.

Los Lobos member David Hidalgo, fresh off his noteable appearance on Bob Dylan's last album, once again wrote the music to bandmate Louis Perez's lyrics. Randy Lewis of the Los Angeles Times was witness to the songwriting process and files a profile in the paper's Sunday magazine section.

Robert Plant Surprise Appearance At Taste of Chicago

Robert Plant made a surprise appearance with Los Lobos the other night at Taste of Chicago, tearing into Morphine's blues chestnut "Treat Her Right." The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the former Led Zeppelin lead singer had been seen milling about town for a few days, even conducting an impromptu jam session in a hotel lobby.

Plant's new album, Band of Joy, co-produced by Buddy Miller, will be released on 14 September. One of the tracks is The Little Band From East L.A.'s "Angel Dance." "Apparently he's been a fan of our songs for a long time," Los Lobos' Louie Perez recently told Rolling Stone. The band will be filming a video with Plant for his version of "Angel Dance."

This Date In Rock History: 3 February

"Bad news on the doorstep."

Fifty-one years ago today, in Clear Lake, Iowa, rock and roll lost three of its pioneering artists in a plane crash. Perishing in a cornfield in the dead of winter were Texan Buddy Holly, Californian Ritchie Valens and DJ J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, along with pilot Roger Peterson. All three singers were riding the crest of a wave of music popularity.

Holly, who had already established a solid career at the young age of 22 with hits like "Not Fade Away," "Peggy Sue" and "Rave On," would become hugely influential in the careers of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, among many others.


Buddy Holly & The Crickets, "Peggy Sue" (1957)


Buddy Holly interview with Red Robinson, Vancouver, October 23, 1957.

Valens, born Richard Valenzuela, was only 17 at the time, and had broken out with the rocking "Come On, Let's Go" and then topped the charts with the ballad "Donna." The teen would later be immortalized in the movie La Bamba and his music would again be brought to the masses by Los Lobos.


Ritchie Valens, "Donna" (live recording 1958)

Richardson, from Texas, had a novelty record called "Chantilly Lace" that gathered attention. What most do not know is that he was also the author of "White Lightning," a tune George Jones took to the top of the charts after the crash.

The famous odd-man out on the fatal plane ride? Waylon Jennings, whose playful comments with Holly about the cold and its potential effects on their respective means of transportation would haunt him until his death in 2002.

FURTHER LISTENING AND VIEWING:
The Rolling Stones perform Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away" in a 1964 television appearance: