New Song: Steve Earle, Los Lobos Team Up For The Striking “Volver A Celaya”
I got a ping from my dear friend RK with a link to the song “Volver A Celaya” and the words “Have been listening to this lately…” His text couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. As I sit around the B&V labs waiting for new albums from Neil Young, Beck and Greta Van Fleet, I’ve been getting twitchy for more new music.
I know that sounds ridiculous as we’ve had a spectacular year in music this year. We’ve got new albums from everybody from erstwhile Beatles Ringo and Paul to new discs from Lucinda Williams and Jack White. Hell, the fabulous new Stones album Foreign Tongues is still in high rotation here.
And yet somehow lately I always seem to end up pacing back and forth in front of my local indie record shop, until I realize I’m standing in front of the front door screaming like Kylo Ren in The Last Jedi, “More, more, more.” Not exactly, but you get the picture… the Dark Side is strong with my addictive personality.
I even posted a recent poll to find out readers favorite TV music/soundtracks which was actually cool… but I needed some more new stuff… Enter RK with Steve Earle and Los Lobos.
For the first time in either of their storied histories alt-country/roots musician Steve Earle and legendary Chicano rock/roots rocker/Tex Mex band Los Lobos have teamed up on a song, “Volver A Celaya,” which translates to “Return to Celaya.” And I have to say, it’s not only timely as if if ripped from the headlines, but it’s a goddamn beautiful song.
I’ll admit right off the bat, I’ve never been a huge fan of either Steve Earle or Los Lobos. I’ve always nibbled around the periphery of those artists’ catalogs. Earle is probably best known for his earlier records like his debut Guitar Town (1986, we put the title track on our Playlist: 1986) and Copperhead Road (1988 which is on our Playlist: Songs About Outlaws).
I think my friend Doug owned Copperhead Road. I seem to remember hearing it when I was up in Chicago on one of my drunken rampages back in the 90s with he and RK. I was surprised to see that Earle is more popular in Canada or his record sales would seem to indicate that.
Los Lobos is a criminally overlooked band from East L.A. I remember hearing them in college when they released probably their best selling record, How Will The Wolf Survive (1984) and my roommate in college Drew bought that album. I thought that LP was amazing. I love their authentic “down near the border” sound.
Again, I can only claim familiarity with both these acts, but I absolutely love this collaboration. Earle wrote the tune while teaching at a songwriter’s convention. He apparently had got to know Los Lobos over the years out on the road and asked them to play with him on the song. Brilliant choices all around.
Earle recruiting Los Lobos to play on this beautifully written story song about an immigrant’s experience during these times when the corrupt thugs in the current regime are disappearing brown people to concentration camps was the perfect accompaniment for these lyrics. Who knew sous chefs, kitchen staff and nurses were “the worst of the worst.”
Like all great story songs, Earle takes us on a journey, in this case that of a young man from Celaya, Mexico. Rather than go to work in the maquiladoras – the assembly plants where workers assemble raw materials into finished products, which sounds dreary – our hero decides to come to America. He gets a job on a San Antonio carpentry crew and despite not having any experience he “caught on.”
The man goes on to be a productive member of the American labor force and becomes a naturalized U.S. citizen. He has two kids, both of whom served in the Army in Afghanistan where one is lost. It’s a heartbreaking story. In the end he decides to leave America to return, “Volver,” to Celaya as America is a country he “barely recognizes anymore.” I hear you, man.
Here’s the song, and like RK I can’t stop listening to it:
The lilting accordion and strummed guitars just bored into my brain. Take the brilliant political statement out of the equation and you still have a wonderful rootsy song.
My only regret about this song is that I haven’t spent more time listening to Earle and Los Lobos over the years. I feel like there’s a world of roots music, blue grass and Americana out there that I haven’t done the due diligence of digging into. You know, songs about trains and drinking beer or riding horses and the American experience.
Turn this song up loud and mourn the dark turn this country has taken and hope for better days and accountability to come in November. If this story doesn’t help humanize the stories of all these wonderful folks who come here looking for a better life, then your heart has already turned to stone. Maybe this will soften that… I don’t know… but at least you’ll have discovered one kick ass song.
Cheers! Take care of each other out there. It’s a dark time but there is light at the end of the tunnel and I’m almost convinced it’s not an oncoming train…almost.
Well, you’ve been busy lately! Like you, was never a huge fan of either…but that don’t mean I don’t like them… I remember Los Lobos mostly from college and my early Chicago days hanging out with the aforementioned DJ. I call that my rockabilly era. And Los Lobos has that in spades along with some good ole cajun sound. But yeah, I can’t get this Steve Earle/Los Lobos song outta my head… it’s sad and great. Thanks for the writeup!!
Thank you for the tip on this one… and yes, I need to get out of the house more. It’s an amazing song. This is the kind of music I founded B&V to extol. Cheers!
Last night I got loaded… loaded on a bottle of gin…on a bottle of whiskey,,, on a bottle of wine… night before last… but I feel alright! How can you not love Los Lobos.
Amen on Los Lobos and the Gin…. Have you tried Noblet’s Gin? Drummer Blake turned me onto it. Very nice indeed. Of late I’ve been having a sip of an orange digestive Solerno… followed by straight vodka. The Solerno to help with my dinner, the vodka to help me with my dark soul. This smoke from the Canadian wildfires are effecting my breathing… my voice rises an octave… I walk around sounding like some moron sucking on a helium balloon. Whiskey is the best medicine but vodka works. Heh heh.
Generally when It comes to Gin, I stick to Bombay or Beefeaters, and occasionally Hendricks. I’m now on the Noblets Gin… will try it… soon. 🙂
When it comes to vodka, I’ll drink any ole vodka… you can get a handle of Clark and Sheffield for $18 at Binny’s! I like to mix it with lemonade for health reasons.
We’ve also been dealing with Canadian wildfire smoke,. quite frankly it’s awful.
As Bogey once said, the whole world is three drinks behind. Cheers!
I’ve always loved that Bogey quote. That one and the Frank Sinatra quote, when he once bemoaned on the behalf of teetotalers, “Imagine not drinking? When you wake up, that’s the best you’re gonna feel all day?”
Gonna have to check this out.. love Steve Earle, he gets better with age. Three fav’s
Johnny come lately
Galway girl
& Fastest man alive…
and that’s not including Copperhead Road
LOL, yeah copperhead road is pretty great too.
I need to deep dive into Earle. Thank you for these suggestions. I love this new track. Los Lobos are great on it as well. Cheers!
Caught Earle three weeks ago in my hometown (Thunder Bay Ontario). All acoustic show and he talked about this collaboration with Los Lobos and ended his show with this tune. What a storyteller Earle is.
OH man, I envy you seeing that show. I definitely want to see him. How great that you got to see him do its I’ve! Thank you for sharing this, that’s fantastic! Cheers!
This song breathes the same atmosphere as Ry Cooder and his collaboration with Flaco Jiminez on ‘Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down’, among a few others. And I recommend a listen to Ry’s latest LP, ‘The Prodigal Son’. A great album.
I have been a fan of Steve Earle for a long time and was lucky enough to see one of his performances, albeit a solo acoustic show. But I have lost track of him a bit. And Los Lobos is just a fantastic band and this is a great song.
Guy, thank you for the tip on Ry Cooder. I’ll check out “Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down.” I’m really only familiar with Ry as a guitarist, really good slide player as I recall, who’s guested on LPs by the Stones and Warren Zevon, if I’m not mistaken.
On Steve Earle, I’m starting to think seeing him acoustic is the best way to see him. You’re the second reader who has done so and commented on it. I know ‘Guitar Town’ and ‘Copperhead Road’ are good places to start with Earle… any more recent LPs I should check out! Thanks!!
Following the passing of Joe Ely in 2025, overdue, I started down a rabbit hole further exploring his work, which gradually became a network of even more rabbit holes. In this instance, for me, leading (back) to Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt, Waylon Jennings, “Heartworn Highways”, and so on. So it was a pleasant surprise to happen across your shout out to Steve Earle! Cheers to you! Hats off to RK! Brewster
Brewster! Always a pleasure to hear from you. Hope all is well. I think that rabbit hole you went down is one I need to follow you into. I haven’t really explored Steve Earle, save for this song, since ‘Guitar Town’/’Copperhead Road.’ I need to delve deeper there.
Joe Ely, who’ve I heard a little of, is another blindspot for me. Where would one begin there? Townes was such a fabulous songwriter and who doesn’t love Waylon? Hopefully this song will lead me to more music in this vein.
Spelunking into back catalogs and artist’s career and discovering is one of the distinct pleasures of being a music fan.
Cheers, my friend and keep in touch!
was that a xylophone? great song and yeah that she snake is captivating.
I love it!
This song Volver a Caleya is a close cousin of ‘He’ll Have to Go’ and ‘Goodnight, Irene’ by Ry Cooder on the album ‘Chicken Skin Music’. Wich is great.
With Steve Earle, I made the mistake of discovering him halfway through his career and buying his entire back catalogue and his new albums like a madman. Which led to an overdose, and my interest in Steve dried up in time. I’ve had that with others as well.
Yeah, that can certainly happen with any artist – listener burn out. It’s happened to me before. I’ve found if I take a break from the artist and come back to him months, sometimes years, later I jump right back in! Maybe this is a sign that it’s time to crank some Steve Earle again! Cheers!
I don’t want to influence anyone, but perhaps someone should write an article about the influence of male and female sensuality and the impact it has on turning a banal song into a worldwide hit.
I came to that thought when I heard of the passing of Jerney Kaagman last month, singer of the Dutch group Earth and Fire, and looked up the video on YouTube of their hit ‘Weekend’ from 1974. Man, I was in love with her then, her dancing, that gorgeous tight blue latex suit she wore, and her seductive dance like a snake in heat. And now my hormones are still going up despite my age. Boy oh Boy what a woman she was.
I had a similar feeling as a young boy looking at album covers from the Ohio Players…