Los Lobos: '50 years into 90 minutes'; band looks forward to Flood City Music Festival

May 6—JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — With a bit of a laugh, Steve Berlin said he wished he knew what fans should expect when they come to hear him and his Los Lobos bandmates headline the AmeriServ Flood City Music Festival at Peoples Natural Gas Park on Aug. 5.

"In all seriousness, I would assume, because it's our 50th anniversary, we're probably going to be playing, trying to somehow or anther encapsulate 50 years into 90 minutes, I guess," Berlin said during a recent podcast interview with The Tribune-Democrat. "Seems impossible.

"But we'll try and touch on, I would think, every iteration, every era, I guess."

Over that half-century, Los Lobos has blended musical sounds from Tex-Mex to rock 'n' roll, blues, folk, Latin, traditional, zydeco and country.

"I think the songs and the ideas that are the most rewarding are the ones where we combine fairly unusual and disparate things into something that sounds pretty cool and new," Berlin said.

Big breakthrough

The band formed in Los Angeles back in 1973.

Berlin, a saxophonist and keyboardist from Philadelphia, joined in 1984.

He said the band was "invisible outside of East L.A." for a long time, which gave them the ability to develop their sound and relationships away from the spotlight. Then, in 1987, their version of Ritchie Valens' "La Bamba" topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

"We were able to do a lot of that stuff outside of the limelight," Berlin said. "When we had a measure of success, I can't say it didn't go to our heads.

"Of course, it will go to our heads to a certain extent, but at least we had the knowledge that we could always go back to where we started. And, in many respects, we have gone back to where we started a number of times through our careers for artistic reasons or just the way of the world."

Los Lobos was inducted into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame in 2018.

With the band or independently, Berlin has also done either session work or producing for numerous musicians, including Willie Nelson, Mavis Staples, Paul Simon, REM, Sheryl Crow, The Chicks, John Lee Hooker, The Smithereens, Faith No More, Greensky Bluegrass, Crash Test Dummies and Buckwheat Zydeco.

Los Lobos previously played at the Johnstown Area Heritage Association's annual music festival in 2010.

"What I really remember about presenting Los Lobos is how gracious they were to us as organizers, to our fans and to the other musicians that were playing that year," said JAHA director of marketing and communications Shelley Johansson.

Johansson called Los Lobos "one of the most important American bands touring."

"They are giants of American music, Grammy winners, have done more to introduce Latin music to the general public than anyone," Johansson said.

"They are absolute crack musicians that put on an amazing show."

This year's festival, which will take place on Aug. 4 and 5, will include performances by more than a dozen bands, among them Keller Williams' Grateful Grass featuring The Hillbenders, and Trouble No More, an Allman Brothers Band tribute group.

And chances are good Berlin and other Los Lobos members will be seen walking around the grounds checking out other acts.

"I've met a lot of cool people and seen a lot of really cool bands just by wandering around at festivals, checking stuff out," Berlin said. "I really, really enjoy it."