Behind The Mic: Canción Mexicana's Larry Lobato Jr. Chicano Music Hall of Fame Inductee

The Chicano Music Hall of Fame Induction / Noche Tradicional Concert is Thursday, July 24, 2025, at 6:30 p.m., part of the week-long 29th annual Chicano Music Festival at Su Teatro.

Transcript

Steve Chavis: There's a lot in there. That's the music of, is that Chicano Heat? Sure it is. Yeah. Larry Lobato Jr. in the house. It's not even Sunday morning.

Larry Lobato Jr.: That's all right. Hey, thanks so much for having me this morning. It's great to be here on a Friday. I'm excited. Thank you guys

Steve: In the rotation as a host of Canción Mexicana, but congratulations on your induction, sir, into the Chicano Music Hall of Fame.

Larry: Thank you. Thank you, thank you. I'm super honored and blessed guys. Thank you.

Steve: Well, you didn't get here by accident.

Larry: No.

Steve: In fact, you didn't have a chance or a choice.

Larry: That's right. Yeah. It was kind of a fate, as you would say it. Like we were talking earlier, my great great grandfather, he played all over the San Luis Valley. He played the violin. His occupation was listed as a fiddler back then. As fate would have it, his son went on to play the accordion all over the San Luis Valley. My grandfather played trumpet, saxophone, all up and down Larimer Street through the San Luis Valley, Colorado for many years. My father, also, Mr. Lorenzo Lovato Sr., Chicano Music Hall of Fame inductee as well, played all up and down Denver, Colorado for many, many years. And as fate would have it, here I am. And I played with him for many years and eventually went on to start my own bands. And this has been my last venture, Chicano Heat. So what a ride.

Steve: His band was Latin Touch, your father's band.

Larry: That's right. Yeah. He was Latin Touch for many, many years and played all over for everybody. And it's funny, but I'm playing for the grandkids of a lot of those people that I played for with my dad back in the day. Their weddings and their parties.

Steve: Quinceñeras and all that.

Larry: Yeah, we played for their quinceñeras, but now we're playing for their kids' weddings now as fate would have it.

Abi Clark: Generational.

Larry: Yeah.

Steve: How long has Chicano Heat been together as a group, as an organization?

Larry: So I've had Chicano Heat for over 13 years now, and it was kind of a throw-together. A friend of mine said, hey, I need a band. I was kind of taking some time off. He says, hey, I need a band to open up for me. I'm going to be backing up Al Hurricane, Junior and Senior. He says, get some guys together. So we opened up the show. I walked out of there with three weddings, a couple parties, and it hasn't stopped.

Steve: You're living the musician’s life, man. And that's part of the legacy of all those Hall of Fame members is that you guys just push the music.

Abi: Yes.

Steve: You just push it. It's just you don't stop. You don't lay back on it. You're pushing it.

Larry: Oh yeah. We're full throttle, man. We're going. I mean, we played three times last week. We got one gig this weekend. Next weekend, we're on to another three gigs in a row, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Steve: There you go. There you go.

Abi: Y'all are always out.

Larry: Oh yeah. We've been lucky. We've been large demand throughout the city. I think one of the good things about our group is that we can mix it up, be real diverse. We don't limit ourself to the traditional stuff, but we can throw some jazz. We'll throw some classic rock in there. We'll do some Latin rock, we'll do some Earth, Wind & Fire. Try to perform for their audience. Look out in the crowd. My dad always said the dance floor speaks for itself. He says, “if you're not doing it, reel it back and try something new.”

Steve: The induction to the Chicano Music Hall of Fame and the Noche Tradicional Concert is Thursday, July 24th. It's part of the Chicano Music Festival there at Su Teatro in the last week of July every year.

Abi: And they always do a class every year. Who's the 2025 class?

Steve: We got Robin Garcia. Don Lucero, Amincha, right?

Larry: That's right. Yeah.

Steve: And that's a pretty good class.

Larry: Yeah. Super humbled to be a part of that class. As fate would have it, Robin Garcia, he happens to be in my band. He's the keyboard player, and he's been playing throughout the Denver Metro area for many, many years. He played with Freddie Rodriguez, Junior and Senior. He did some world touring. He went to Europe a couple times and performed with some R&B groups, but he's got quite the resume. So we're going to do a double show down at Su Teatro, him and I. We're going to, with my band, along with my band, we're going to perform a couple songs down at the induction ceremony. So if you get a chance come on down, check it out.

Carlos Lando: So Larry, how's things with Canción Mexicana? You guys are doing a fantastic job. All the hosts, and that's a program that's been on, speaking of 40 years, that program from the inception of KUVO and everything. And you grew up with listening to KUVO and Canción and all the great Sunday programs.

Larry: Absolutely. I've been listening to it for many, many years. All the different hosts. And as time would go on, I grew up. When I was playing with my dad's band at the time, a lot of the music, some of the hosts were playing some of the new stuff out of Texas. We didn't have as much music available to us … like we do now. But back then it was like Danny was on, he would be playing the very best of the new Tejana music. So we would pick up that music and we would learn it. La Differencia would come out at the time, and that was kind of our only window to get that music. So as time went on, fate has it, we performed in the studio down at the old studio with my band, and an opening came up and lo and behold, I was asked to become one of the hosts in rotation along with everybody else. And it's been a heck of a ride. It's been amazing. They're talking about being tired. The Broncos are playing. There's times I come in here on a Sunday and I'm like, man, I just want to sleep in. I just want to kick back. And then I walk into this studio and I'm like, somebody gave me the keys to this studio and a computer board to play and say whatever I want to. I'm doing this. Let's have some fun. I love it. I love it. Not anybody can just have that opportunity. There's a ton of people that would love to have that opportunity.