Steve Earle and Los Lobos are both roots-music institutions who have been leaving their respective marks on the world since at least the 80s, and they’ve got a lot of shared history. Over the years, Earle and Los Lobos have toured together, and they’ve shared god knows how many stages, but they’ve never collaborated until now.
Today, they’ve come together on “Volver A Celaya,” a new song that Earle wrote from the perspective of a Mexican-born construction worker who’s spent most of his life in the US and who now plans to return to his homeland. Last year, Earle taught songwriting workshops in Brooklyn, and that’s when he wrote it. He’s been performing it live since then. It’s a tough, pretty, heartfelt piece of work, and there’s a whole lot of empathy built into it. Earle and Los Lobos recorded the song together in Richmond, Virginia earlier this summer, with Los Lobos member Steve Berlin producing. Here’s what Earle says about it:
The character speaking to you in this song is based on guys that I worked with framing houses, right after I dropped out of high school in 1971. At first I worked with other guys who looked like me — anglos on crews that worked from 7:00 a.m. til 3:30 and then knocked off and headed to the nearest beer joint. Minimum wage was $1.60 an hour, and I never took home a check bigger than 85 bucks — until I discovered Mexican crews worked from “can’t see to can’t see,” sometimes putting in 50, even 55 hours a week. Shortly after starting with those guys, I held a hundred dollars in my hand for the first time in my life. It was simply a different way of thinking about making a living. These guys put in all the hours they could, brought the money home to their family on the westside — or back across the border to Mexico. I didn’t mind working late because, as far as I knew, nothing cool happened ‘til dark anyway.
These days, with the word “immigration” on the tip of everyone’s tongue, I found myself wondering where Cruz, Armando, and Eusebio are today and what they would make of this mess, so I set to putting words in their mouths. When writing was done and it was time to record, there wasn’t a shred of doubt in my mind who to call. Los Lobos and I have been connected at our roots since the beginning of our careers. We’ve shared stages at festivals and toured together as a package but collaborating in the studio was a box unchecked — until now.
And here’s what Steve Berlin says:
Working with Steve Earle on this project is the latest culmination of a long and fruitful relationship going back decades. We had an absolute blast working on this special song with him, as there are few songwriters extant who can say so much by simply painting the picture of life under the current regime. We look forward to future collaborations.
Check it out below.
“Volver A Celaya” is out now on New West Records. This fall, it’ll be available on a limited edition 7″ single, with Earle’s 2007 song “City Of Immigrants” on the B-side. A few months ago, Earle shared a Steve Buscemi-directed video for that song:
That 7″ single is out 10/16, and you can pre-order it online.
