Los Lonely Boys are keeping it real

When the Texas trio's breakout self-titled release debuted in 2004, the popular song quickly became known as the band of brothers' signature work and turned the threesome into a household name for millions of Americans.

It also set an impossibly high standard to live up to.

The album did, after all, go multiplatinum and earned the band a 2005 Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group.

With a second studio album, "Sacred," now on store shelves, Los Lonely Boys bassist and middle brother Jojo Garza said he and his siblings, Henry and Ringo, took all the high expectations for their sophomore effort in stride.

"I don't think there is really any type of pressure," said the 26-year-old in a phone interview last month from New York City.

The Boys come through Casino del Sol's AVA Saturday.

He added: "It is not really about trying to write another 'Heaven.' Some people do have pressure on their sophomore albums and try to reach a point that they had reached at one time. But I think we are pretty much going to be OK no matter what happens, because God is on our side. We are just going to play the music we are going to play, and hopefully people will want to listen."

So far so good for the San Angelo trio. Album buzz has been brisk, and "Sacred" entered the Billboard 200 charts at No. 2 in its opening week with sales just shy of 67,000 units. (The band's debut album only made it as high as the No. 9 spot.)

If critics are correct, "Sacred's" high sales are due to the band's ability to stick to its guns, applying the same homespun West Texas rock mentality that blew people away on the group's first studio recording.

In what Entertainment Weekly has declared a release that hits all of Los Lonely Boys' regular bases — "regional roots, family and quality alone time" — "Sacred" is smothered in that familiar Garza brothers tone: vocal harmonies, free-wheeling guitar work with just a smattering of lyrical prose.

"The album is a basic direction and a concept of living," Jojo Garza said. "Trying to be real people and spreading the message to other people. Be regular people. Don't change for nothing. Don't worry about money, and if you got it, don't flaunt it because it is not about those sort of things. The new album has all of that."

Many of the tracks, like the funky guitar-laden "Órale" and accordion-driven "Texican Style," were penned in-studio and feature guest writers like Pat Simmons from the Doobie Brothers ("Roses") and Gary Nicholson ("Outlaws".)

"The process was a little tougher because we were having to write most of it there (in studio,)" Garza said. "It is hard work. On our first album we had our whole lives to create it, but for this album we were just too busy with the other album."

Ironically, the record's first single, "Diamonds," is not a new song at all for Los Lonely Boys, nor was the band incredibly interested in recording it.

"It was a song we wrote in 1995 or '96," Garza said. "We had written it as young teenagers, and we just wanted to leave it where it was. But they (the label) found it and asked if we could do the song, rewrite the lyrics and add a bridge. We told them, 'Yeah, we can, but we don't really want to.' We ultimately decided to take their advice. That is the relationship between the band and the label. They help us out and show us the ways to get to where we want to go."

Garza said he believes that Los Lonely Boys fans will enjoy the entire album. If he had to choose just one song that touched him the most in production, however, it would be the guest track "Outlaws," featuring longtime mentor Willie Nelson, as well as the patriarch of the Garza family, Enrique Garza Sr.

The trio grew up watching their father perform with his West Texas conjunto band, Los Falcones, so to play with him on the song was a big thrill, Jojo Garza said.

"We are happy we could get our dad on there, man, because he is our major influence," he added. "And to have Willie on that song, too, is just a dream come true for us and Dad. He (Dad) has loved his music for many years."

Nelson may not be with the Garza brothers when they sweep through the AVA this weekend, but the band promises to give as much as they receive from fans Saturday night.

"Doing this is a lot better than digging ditches or working at a restaurant," Garza said. "We believe this is what we were put here to do, to spread this message of harmony and love and provide an escape from pain and suffering."

Quick Take

Los Lonely Boys in concert

With Kinky

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday

Where: Casino del Sol's AVA, 5655 W. Valencia Road

Cost: $25-$40 through Ticketmaster, 321-1000