Y La Bamba will release their new album Lucha next week on April 28 via Tender Loving Empire and today shares “Hues (feat. Devendra Banhart),” a song about not being anyone’s fool. Rhythms veer into bossa nova territory on the track, which is a full-circle collaboration for lead vocalist and producer Luz Elena Mendoza Ramos as they reminisce on the significance of finding Banhart’s work nearly two decades earlier. 

“He was the first young Spanish-speaking musician that wasn’t playing traditional Mexican music I heard when I was 21. There was nothing like it around that time.”

Daniel Baretto created a Rotoscope video with details of animation that accompanies the track and all proceeds from the single are going to Border Kindness, an organization that provides asylum-seekers, migrants, refugees, and the displaced with comprehensive services that include food, shelter, clothing, medical care, and legal services.

To declare one thematic narrative from Lucha, Y La Bamba’s seventh album, would be to chisel away a story within a story within a story into the illusion of something singular. The album explores multiplicity—love, queerness, Mexican American and Chicanx identity, family, intimacy, yearning, loneliness—and chronicles a period of struggle and growth for Mendoza Ramos as a person and artist.

“Lucha is a symbol of how hard it is for me to tackle healing, live life, and be present,” Luz says of the title behind the album which translates from Spanish to English as ‘fight’ and is also a nickname for Luz, which means light.

Y La Bamba starts a national US tour next week and has added a date in Mexico City as well as festival appearances at THING and Fairwell. A full list of dates with more to be added can be found below.

Y La Bamba Tour Dates

April 26 – Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom (Album Release Show)

April 27 – Seattle, WA – Barboza

April 29 – Sacramento, CA – Starlet Room

April 30 – San Francisco, CA – The Chapel

May 02 – Los Angeles, CA – Lodge Room

May 03 – Santa Barbara, CA – SoHo

May 04 – San Diego, CA – Casbah

May 05 – Phoenix, AZ – Valley Bar

May 06 – Santa Fe, NM – El Rey Court

May 07 – Albuquerque, NM – Fusion 708

May 09 – Dallas, TX – Tulips

May 11 – McAllen, TX –Gremlin

May 12 – San Antonio, TX – Jaime’s Place

May 13 – Austin, TX – The Ballroom

May 16 – Washington, DC – Songbyrd

May 17 – Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s

May 19 – Cincinnati, OH – Northside Tavern

May 20 – Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle

May 21 – Minneapolis, MN – 7th Street Entry

May 23 – Denver, CO – Bluebird Theater

May 25 – Mexico City, MX – Foro Cultural Hilvana

July 21-23 – Redmond, OR – Fairwell Festival

Aug 27 – Port Townsend, WA – THING Fest