‘Texican’ Rock & Rollers: Lonely in Name Only

It wasn’t pre-ordained that Los Lonely Boys member Ringo Garza, Jr. – who was named after a John Wayne movie, not the ex-Beatle – was going to end up being the sibling band’s drummer. It had a lot more to do with the fact that, not only was he the youngest sibling of the three boys whose dad, also called Ringo, was in a band with his brothers too, but he was a bit hyperactive as a child. 

“My dad didn’t know what to do with me,” Garza recalled. “So naturally the drums came about as a way to channel the energy.” 

It took a while, but eventually the band’s Willie Nelson-propelled major label debut threw them into public consciousness as the latest “overnight sensation.” Suddenly from bars and clubs around town, the Boys sold two million copies of the album, which spent 76 weeks on the Billboard chart and earned them a Grammy. 

“We were surprised that so many people related to our music, but I think it’s that we represent the American Dream.” he said. “It’s like the working-class person that comes from literally nothing, and music is everything to us, which I think people can feel in the lyrics and the harmony. They feel the closeness, the brotherhood of our songs.” 

Garza can’t recall exactly when the Austin-based “Texican rock & roll” might have played in Santa Barbara other than a 2006 date at the Bowl right around their initial success. So it’s entirely possible that their upcoming Lobero shows are the first in almost 20 years. At least they are making up for lost time by playing two concerts, an amplified performance on January 26 followed by an acoustic show the next night. 

Turns out that long gaps aren’t anything new for Henry, Jojo, and Garza, who have been playing and touring together since they were teenagers. It’s actually been more than a decade since the band released a new album, partially due to a hiatus from 2019-2023, their first time off the road in many years. 

But now there’s a new single, “Heaven,” which could also describe how Ringo feels about being back playing with the brothers again. 

“They’re brilliant, brilliant musicians,” he said. “I would put them up against any songwriters that there has ever been, and melodically it’s just amazing to me because the songs are so timeless. We all write, but it seems so effortless the way that it comes out of them, and I am forever grateful to be their brother and their drummer.”

The pair of shows is something of an experiment for Los Lonely Boys, Ringo said.

“We’re all getting older and we want to show that part of us as well, how songs were written and what we were thinking about when we were writing them and how we’ve changed,” he said. “That works better acoustically.” 

Visit http://lobero.org for more information and tickets