Los Lobos keeps it very cool, very down to earth

Well, consider that one of their most ardent fans was the Grateful Dead front man himself, Jerry Garcia.

“I read this interview with Jerry Garcia,” Jon Fishman, the renowned drummer for none other than Phish said of a magazine story he recalled from the 1980s. “He said he always wanted to sing like David Hidalgo of Los Lobos.”

Of course, reading those words from his idol’s mouth prompted Fishman to also get more into Los Lobos even though he was already a huge fan. That’s the bottom line with Los Lobos who released their debut “Just Another Band from East L.A.” about three decades ago — they’re musicians’ musicians.

If you think their massive success has caused them to go Hollywood, consider that the band recorded its Aug. 3 release “For Tin Can Trust” in the same East L.A. neighborhood from which they hailed.

“That took us out of our comfort zone and allowed us to do what we hadn’t done in quite some time: to play together in the same room, as one,” songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Louie P?rez said. This was not about putting your feet up; this was about working.”

For the group’s first studio record in four years — except for a special children’s project –the band members knew they had plenty of songs that’d work for the latest album even though the record business had changed dramatically in that time. That’s why they carefully selected their latest label, Shout! Factory.

“A lot has changed — more or less the wheels came off the whole music business, and we really had to figure out what we really wanted to do, how we would make sense of it and carry it,” multi-instrumentalist Steve Berlin said. “We sat down and worked out that things that mattered most to us and worked from there.”

With the business pieces in place, the band members turned around an album in a matter of months to meet the goal of a summer 2010 release.

“We were really scrambling there for a little while,” Berlin said. “But ideas came out, and over three weeks we had the outline of the record. … It was a very bizarre process that I wouldn’t recommend for anybody — as a producer I wouldn’t put up with it from anyone — but it worked. … A lot of stuff Dave came up with and we went with it.”

Berlin noted the relationship the band has always maintained with its fans allows them to take artistic turns that other bands might avoid for fear of losing their audience.

“We don’t really think of it as getting something across to our fans,” he said. “We have a unique relationship with our fans. No matter where we want to go, they go along. We have this sense they’ll be there. We think they trust our artistic sensibilities and integrity and wouldn’t put out something that wasn’t worthy or great. We have open spirits and open minds and cool things happen.”