The last song, Los Lobos and Pleasure Pilots

by Chris Aaland

Grammy winners Los Lobos play the Concert Hall at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

At an Edgar Meyer concert a few years ago, a young fiddle player asked Edgar what the last song he’d like to play before he died was. Edgar’s response was enlightening. After thinking about it for a second or two, he said he hoped it was something he wrote on the spot.

I’ve thought a lot about that since, particularly in the past three weeks since my mother died while listening to my Tales of the New West radio program. The last song she heard was Patsy Cline’s “Walking after Midnight” while suffering a heart attack. I’d think she’d be happy with that as a last request, even if it was two decades sooner than any of us had wished.

Prior to having my aortic valve replaced 15 months ago, the last song I cued up on my iPod before surgery was “Happy Boy” by the Beat Farmers. It’s a short little ditty, only 1:21 in length. Singer-guitarist Jerry Raney would take Country Dick’s spot behind the drum kit and play a kazoo solo in the middle of the song. Then Country Dick would lie on his back and hold a beer bottle between his cowboy boots, tip backwards and do a beer-gargling solo. Beethoven, it was not. But “Happy Boy” would be a fitting song for me to exit to.

I only share this because the producer of the Beat Farmers’ debut album, “Tales of the New West,” is saxophone player Steve Berlin, who plays the Community Concert Hall with Los Lobos the day this column comes out. As I embrace my 46th birthday this Monday, bands of my youth — the Beat Farmers, the Blasters, Los Lobos, et al — mean more to me today than they did when I was a teen-ager.

One of rock’s most eclectic bands and multiple Grammy Award winners Los Lobos bring their 40th anniversary “Disconnected” tour to the Concert Hall at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Based out of East L.A. and best known for such albums as “How Will the Wolf Survive?,” “By the Light of the Moon” and “The Neighborhood,” the sextet has balanced their roots and rock by spicing up blues-, R&B- and folk-tinged rock with cumbia, boleros, norteños and Tex-Mex ever since their humble beginnings. Their latest album, “Disconnected in New York City,” is a career-spanning live effort. The original core of guitarist David Hidalgo, drummer Louie Pérez, guitarist César Rosas and bassist Conrad Lozano have been together since the band started in 1973; Berlin joined them in the early ‘80s after playing with the Blasters. In 2011, Enrique “Bugs” Gonzales was added as a second drummer/percussionist.

The Animas City Theatre hosts Celefunktion 2014 featuring See-I, the Magic Beans and Juicy Money at 9 p.m. Friday. See-I features brothers Rootz and Zeebo Steele, who ventured from college in North Carolina to the Caribbean to Washington, D.C. in the 1980s. In D.C., they became fixtures of a burgeoning reggae scene, recording and touring with Thievery Corporation. The Magic Beans are innovators on the Colorado music scene, fusing dance with electro-acoustic sounds, sharing the stage with newgrass legends like Leftover Salmon and the String Cheese Incident and electronic acts like Bassnectar and Eliot Lipp. Local DJs Juiceboxxx and T Munz collaborate in Juicy Money.

Celtic sounds take over the Community Concert Hall at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday as Masters of Tradition take the stage. Featuring seven of the most compelling musicians in contemporary Irish music, the Masters weave solos, duets, trios and full-group collaborations to take the audience on a musical journey.

Legendary songwriter Joe Ely plays an hour-and-a-half north of town Monday at the Turn of the Century Saloon in Montrose. Best known for his work with the Flatlanders, Ely’s solo repertoire includes some classics in the Americana canon, including 1978’s “Honky Tonk Masquerade,” 1995’s “Letter to Laredo” and 2003’s “Streets of Sin.”

The Pleasure Pilots, a six-piece rockin’ R&B outfit based in New Mexico, travels to Crash Music in the historic Aztec Theatre at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. They cover the likes of Amos Milburn, T-Bone Walker, Albert King, Louis Jordan and Johnny “Guitar” Watson. Two horn players augment the traditional guitar-bass-drums-keys lineup.

“La Bohème,” the most performed opera at the Metropolitan Opera, will be screened at 10:55 a.m. Saturday when “The Met: Live in HD” continues in the Vallecito Room of FLC’s Student Union. The broadcast will be the Met’s 1,256th performance of Giacomo Pucinni’s moving story of young love. The production features a dynamic cast of rising young stars, led by Italian tenor Vittorio Grigolo as the passionate and penniless young poet Rodolfo, opposite rising Romanian soprano Anita Hartig as the seamstress Mimi. Since the fine folks in the Met’s PR office are good at keeping track of numbers, let it be sung amongst the gods that today marks the first time the word “seamstress” has appeared in my writing.

With slightly less sophistication, Moe’s offers up its local live music jam at 6 p.m. Saturday featuring Powertribe followed by music and dancing to the sounds of DJs Nuffsaid and Juan Blanco at 10 — plus there’s free shots for the ladies after 8! Regular happenings include Salsa Night at 8 p.m. Friday, Latin Music Night at 8 p.m. Sunday and Tuesday’s open mic at 7.

Elsewhere: the Kirk James Blues Band plays Vallecito’s Schank House at 7 p.m. Friday; the full Black Velvet works the Derailed Pour House at 8 p.m. Friday and the duo entertains at 6512 Restaurant & Lounge at 7 p.m. Saturday.

We’re a fourth of the way through 2014, so here’s five albums already fighting for a spot on my “Best of 2014” list. Not surprisingly, four twangy records make the cut. Shocking, though, is that retro ‘70s soul by a bunch of jammy Boulder hippies tops my list.

• The Motet, self-titled. A career-defining, feel-good moment.
• Sturgill Simpson, “Medamodern Sounds in Country Music.” Waylon would have liked this guy. It’s outlaw country in the vein of Whitey Morgan & the 78’s, with lyrics that would make Guy Clark proud.
• Drive-By Truckers, “New English Oceans.” Half the tunes are Mike Cooley’s, which should please the diehard fanbase.
• Lydia Loveless, “Somewhere Else.” Ready to assume the bad girl throne from Neko Case.
• Reverend Horton Heat, “Rev.” Loud, fast and straightforward rockabilly genius.

My little dog Spot got hit by a car? Email me at chrisa@gobrainstorm.net.