La Pistola y El Corazón, by Los Lobos (1988)

When I needed sunshine

I was not at my best in 1999.

My family was living in England, at a small RAF post that had once been an airfield during World War II. We arrived during the summer of 1998 when the excitement of the World Cup had kept us and our 3-year-old entertained during an otherwise dull six-week stay in a hotel, waiting for a house on post to open up. By mid-1999, the dreary weather, the remote setting, and the 12-hour rotating day/mid-shift work had begun to take their toll on my mind. There were months in which my 7am-7pm schedule and overcast weekends prevented me from seeing the sun at all.

I needed sunshine.¹

And that’s when I re-discovered a ten-year-old album by Los Lobos. It was the album they decided to make after their contribution to the La Bamba soundtrack gave them an unexpected nationwide hit. They took the attention and leeway from Warner Bros. to say, “Let’s make an album of the traditional party music that we started out playing - but with excellent production.”

Here’s a great example: a 2013 performance of “El Canelo”:

This album is extremely short, clocking in at just over 25 minutes with 9 tracks, but it packs a lot into that space.