Seasoned veterans Los Lobos create cinematic music as they touch upon some thorny issues

Berlin says that when he crossed paths with the band, he'd never envisioned himself playing Latin American folk music. So how was he able to make the adjustment, musically?

"A lot of it, I would say with all due modesty, is the way I was brought up musically in Philadelphia," he says. "Versatility and adaptability were traits that you basically had to have. On any given day, you'd be playing blues or jazz or Philly soul. Philadelphia was a great incubator for that because there was very little parochialism. So when it came time to learn folkloric or Latin music, it was, like, 'Okay, one more thing I haven't tried.' I have to pay a lot of respect to the people who taught me on my way up. Just the simple fact that they let me play with them was a pretty big deal to me."

And how daunting was it for Berlin to join Los Lobos, a band whose members were childhood friends?

"I wouldn't call it daunting," he says. "They'd laugh about stuff that I wasn't part of, but for me, the music outweighs everything. It was so musically rewarding, I figured I'd learn the stories and be able to tell them firsthand in a couple of years anyway, and now I can. It's as if I was there anyway, because I've heard them so many bloody times. You know, every person sort of makes their own personal mythology anyway."