Lalo Guerrero

Lalo Guerrero (born December 24, 1916 in Tucson , Arizona , † March 17, 2005 in Palm Springs , California ; actually Eduardo Guerrero, Jr. ) was an American singer , guitarist, and songwriter of Latin American music , who was the founder of the Chicano - Music applies.

Guerrero learned to play the guitar from his mother and soon began to write his own songs. At the age of 17 he moved to Los Angeles , where he made his first recordings under the direction of producer Manuel Acuña .

A little later, Guerrero founded his first band Los Carlistas , with which he initially performed a number of appearances in the Los Angeles area and in 1939 represented Arizona at the New York World's Fair . He began recording with Imperial Records in the 1940s and appeared in a number of films, including Boots and Saddles with Gene Autry and His Kind of Woman with Robert Mitchum . In the 1950s he led his own orchestra and had his first US hit in 1955 with The Ballad of Pancho Lopez , a parody of the Walt Disney song The Ballad of Davy Crockett .

In the 1960s, Guerrero bought his own nightclub in Los Angeles, where he often performed with his band. He sold this club in 1972, moved to Palm Springs, California and began performing less than before, even if he never completely withdrew from the music scene. In 1995 Papa's Head was released, a concept album for children that Guerrero had recorded with Los Lobos . Shortly after supporting Ry Cooder on his album Chavez Ravine , Lalo Guerrero died on March 17, 2005.