Los Lobos

Although it always pays to have some heft around the waist in rock and roll, Los Lobos' actual guts also have rounded the band's mystique. Like a club formed by your neighborhood clique of grandfathers, Los Lobos go about their business at an unhurried pace that conveys dignity in leisure. Never mind that they can rock your ass for three hours at a time. In contrast to, say, Springsteen, Los Lobos prefer to make their job look easy — just like they've been blending Mexican, American, and Tejano traditions for three decades now into a long-simmering stew. Meanwhile, an upcoming album that addresses immigration (The Town and the City) has the band showing its guts in a whole new way.