"Listen To My Voice!" with Louie Perez of Los Lobos

Louie Pérez of Los Lobos said it's been almost 40 years since he and David
Hidalgo first sat down and made music.

It was all so simple then, when the two students at Garfield High School
in East Los Angeles would hunker down in Hidalgo's room and bang out the
tunes.

"I went over to his house one day for a year," said Pérez with a laugh,
on the phone while hanging out in a Borders book store in Santa Ynez,
seeking shelter from the early January storm that ravaged the West Coast.

"We just started playing guitars, then we started our first band together in
the early '70s, around '71 or '72. Then, Los Lobos happened and everybody
was out of school by then. The band came together and we just continued to
do what we learned how to do, just make music and write songs together."

Standing between the non-fiction and "libros para niños" sections, Pérez
warmly recalled those early bedroom jam sessions, which have come full
circle now that he and Hidalgo are performing a string of concerts as a duo.

Los Lobos fans need not worry, as the band surely has not split up. In
fact, a less than a week after Pérez and Hidalgo's scheduled Jan. 18
performance at the Sunset Center in Carmel, the entire roster will head out
to Santa Cruz for a gig Jan. 25 at The Catalyst.

Louie talked with "The Beat" in anticipation of this weekend's show. To listen to an mp3 of the interview, click here.