Los Lonely Boys could be next Santana

The music world has no shortage of superb Latin-rock bands, from Control Machete to Kinky. But for the last 30 years, only one — Santana — has sustained mainstream stardom.

Soon, history may add another name to that list.

After 10 months of building on the charts, the Tex-Mex brother act known as Los Lonely Boys has seen its self-titled CD climb as far as No. 9 on Billboard’s Top 200 album chart (it’s at No. 13 this week).

That’s the highest rank for an Anglo-Spanish act since Los Lobos’ cover of Ritchie Valens’ classic “La Bamba” 17 years ago.

Powering the CD’s ascent is the Top 40 single “Heaven,” a mix of Southern rock, Latin lilts and accessible pop.

According to bassist JoJo Garza, the band’s breakthrough has less to do with ethnicity than with authenticity.

“Music right now needs a little help to bring back the real thing,” he says. “Technology took over for a time, and people forgot where real music came from.”

For Los Lonely Boys, it came directly from their father, musician Henry Garza. He exposed them as kids to the songs of Texas legends Willie Nelson, Doug Sahm and Stevie Ray Vaughn.

The band consists of three Garzas: JoJo (25), guitarist Henry Jr. (26) and drummer Ringo (22).

That last name is real, by the way.

“My dad loved the Beatles, and he never knew anybody with that name,” JoJo explains. “It’s just amazing he grew up to be a great drummer.”

The siblings started out playing with their father as preteens, near their home in Snyder, Texas.

“We backed him in little bars and cantinas,” says JoJo. “It was just to make ends meet — or to make ends, since they weren’t meeting.”

The Boys struck out on their own in 1996 and built a following for their soulful mingling of Texas blues and traditional Mexican conjunto. They got a huge boost from Nelson, who started talking them up in the press after he heard their demo, and they wound up recording their debut at Nelson’s studio.

On the CD, Henry’s guitar-driven sound takes inspiration from Vaughn’s grinding solos and Duane Allman’s soaring ones, as well as Santana’s sweet leads.

“Those are the teachers,” JoJo says.

He’s less impressed with more materialistically minded modern music.

“They all sing about diamonds and gold. And not everybody has that,” he says. “But everybody has a heart, and blood that runs through their veins. That’s what we sing about.”