If you take two members of The Blazers, an East LA Roots band, Jesus Cueves (singer and accordionist) and Mike Molina (drummer), mix in one part Blues guitar, Kid Ramos, and then just for kicks throw in James Barrios, a bassist with the Bakersfield country sound, slow cook them in a big pot for long hours, and then pour it out, to steal the word of a New Orleans “pot stirrer”, “Shazam!” Los Fabulocos, quite an appropriate sobriquet for this band and the music they produce. They further stretch the boundaries, on this, their second disc, they have expanded into differentiating roots of the Tex-Mex-Cali blues to now encompass Zydeco, old time R & B; and like any good gumbo it is simmered for long long hours to make it into the delicious dish that can’t be separated into its differing component parts, however it all fits together into a seamless surprisingly delicate and at the same time raucous dish. This disc gets some of its spices by enlisting Big Manny Gonzales on rubboard (2), Timbales (4), harmony vocals (1 & 3); Raul Medrano guiro (4), tambourine (1 & 8) and shaker (10); and Ron Dziubla saxophone (3 & 11); the former two were also members of The Blazers. They provide just the slight finishing touches that turn this disc from a very good sophomore effort to an outstanding effort.
On this disc someone in the group writes the 8 of the 12 songs, with Jesus Cuevas penning, or co-writing 6 of them. Then there is “Keep A Knockin’” by Richard W. Penniman (AKA Little Richard) done partially in Spanish, a gem by Lalo Guerrero, Enrique Sanchez contributes one and Carlos Coral wrote the remaining song. Some of the songs are in English some in Spanish and most are in both languages and it all forms a wonderful and powerful reminder that music doesn’t recognize boundaries, those artificial boundaries only divide and don’t add to a harmonious whole. This is a disc that though it is mostly a raucous party disc it is a wonderful mixture of music and will have you up and moving to the music as you go about your business. A knockout disc and great for eating up the miles in the car as you cruise down the road.