If you're looking for a soulful, guy-friendly and raw bar-band sound, but acts like Southside Johnny or even John Hiatt come off as a tad too bland, I'd like set you down and spin you a little of Soul Disguise, the first album by Cesar Rosas.

Rosas is no newcomer. He's been a member of long time underground favorites Los Lobos...yes the La Bamba band. "Soul Disguise" covers ground from Los Lobos' early, ballsy rock, their traditional Mexican arrangements, and, a new direction, a little Memphis soul. Tunes like Ike Turner's "You've Got To Lose" is a Miller Genuine Draft guzzler that cribs heavily from The Fabulous Thunderbirds' book. Shimmering and brash electric guitars, like on "Tough To Handle" are recorded in a clashing fashion not heard in Los Lobos' work, even in their cover of Cream's "Politician" (one of the hardest rockin' tunes around.)

Rosas sings in Spanish on two tracks, with traditional accordians backing him, as well as a bouncy bassline. It's hard not to smile when listening to these tracks. Forgive the cliché, but I flash on a late night summer party, bug lights lit, oversized red plastic cups filled with vodka and crystal light. The music's as fun as that.

"Shack and Shambles" is as close as the album gets to funk. In a world where Frats are playing The Dave Matthews Band like it's some great innovation, one hopes that this tune with its James Brown Show horns, guitar lines, rhythm breaks, and Hammond B-3, not to mention riffs on "hot sauce and the Sunday Times", would become a good time hit.

It isn't all snappy happy tunes, though. The album closer "E. Los Ballad #13" is a haunting blues with a horn arrangement straight out of "Child Is Father To The Man". "Better Way", another ballad, features that same strange not-mandolin not-autoharp that graces so much of Los Lobos' work. It, too, shows how dynamic a vocalist Rosas is, so easily elevating this straight-ahead album into something genuine and remarkable.

I've not seen Rosas' act live, but I can imagine that it is a real fun show, filled with vocal strength and emotion. I'll be keeping an eye on the papers.

My only complaint about "Soul Disguise" is that the opening cut, "Little Heaven" is far too derivative of the earlier mentioned Hiatt-Southside school. I almost didn't bother with the remaining eleven tracks, though, obviously, I am glad now that I did. Skip straight to track two if you pick this fine "guy record" up.