Llego Navidad, Los Lobos (Rhino)

If you're familiar at all with Los Lobos, you know these guys run the gamut of all the various rock-era musical styles at one time or another, from power pop to funk and soul, and then they mix in their own Central American Hispanic heritage to boot. Indeed, they've done a couple of albums of traditional Mexican-Spanish folk music during their career. So no surprise, this 2019 album gives us a heaping helping of traditional holiday music from North, Central, and South America, heavy on the folk styles of those regions. You'd probably gather as much from the song titles: "La Rama," "Reluciente Sol," "Amarga Navidad," "Arbolito de Navidad," "Las Mananitas," "La Murga," "Regalo de Reyes" and the title song. I can't contribute a whole lot about these songs because my Spanish is good only for getting me to la biblioteca. I can say that when I listen to authentic folk music normally, it feels like homework, but Los Lobos makes these songs go down smooth. "Arbolito" is fun because it throws in a cheesy combo organ that evokes your favorite 60s garage band records, "Reluciente Sol" has a nice horn figure that is less mariachi and more Stax in sound, and "La Murga" takes me back to their previous tune "Kiko and the Lavender Moon." Lest you think this is one of those Putumayo world music collections, they give us the Freddy Fender cover "It's Christmas Time in Texas," heavy on the accordion, a cool reimagining of the popular novelty "Donde Esta Santa Claus," and to top everything off, they close with "Feliz Navidad." If you've somehow gotten this far in your life without experiencing Los Lobos, this holiday collection makes a pretty good entry point.