As nervous as a bridegroom, the bassist for the Texas trio Los Lonely Boys was clearly distracted during our interview last week.

Jojo Garza was thinking mainly about his jam session with Carlos Santana, scheduled to take place a few hours later.

I politely asked if the song Onda, the nearly nine-minute Santana-influenced jam on Los Lonely Boys' self-titled debut CD, is an homage to the guitar god.

"We didn't call it a tribute but, dude, he's one of our greatest inspirations," Garza raved on his cellphone while driving around San Francisco. "In fact, he'll be jamming with us at the Filmore tonight. For the first time in our lives, brother! I just got chills telling you that."

Los Lonely Boys play the Horseshoe tonight.

Comprising the Garza brothers from San Angelo, Tex. -- Jojo, 23, drummer Ringo, 22, and guitarist Henry, 25 -- the Boys are being called one of the biggest music stories of the year.

This can be attributed to the charm of three humble lads, and to a sound that encompasses Stevie Ray Vaughan, classic rock, Tex-Mex and scorching live performances.

Since their independent album was released last August, Los Lonely Boys have toured with Willie Nelson, B.B. King and steel-guitar phenomenon Robert Randolph. In March, the group won best album, best band and best song at the Austin Music Awards (the official kickoff of the South By Southwest Music Festival). Just last month, Epic Records -- a division of Sony Music -- began marketing and distributing the band's CD.

Politicians, too, seem to be jumping on the Boys' bandwagon. The Texas House of Representatives declared June 10, 2003, "Los Lonely Boys Day" in the Lone Star State. And now Santana has jumped into the mix.

Oh, did we mention that Willie Nelson was so impressed by one of their shows he invited them to record their album at his studio?

"Our management got in touch with his nephew and they told us Willie would come out and check us out," Garza says. "We were like, 'Yeah, right! Willie Nelson's gonna come see us play in a little club.' And he really did."

Garza's enthusiasm is catching, and you can't help but share his excitement about the buzz this band of brothers has created. This is how he describes what transpired the first time he heard Los Lonely Boys on the radio:

"We were driving in separate cars -- Henry and me were in one, and Ringo was with his wife and kids in another -- and when the song came on we just started bawling, man!

"We were driving next to each other banging the windows and shouting, 'Yeah!' Then we pulled over and called Jody Denberg (the program director at Austin's influential KGSR-FM) and told him we were really touched."

Clearly, the Boys have come along way since hustling to be taken seriously in Nashville. Their dad, a respected conjunto musician who played in a band with his five brothers, wanted them to be the first Chicano family band to make it in country music so he moved there in 1990.

"We didn't have money or great equipment, but we had each other," Garza says. "It was all work, it was all practice and no play. We went to school, did our homework, went to the local bar and jammed away so we could pay our bills and have some food and shelter."

Not surprisingly, the rednecks gave them a rough ride. "No matter what we heard them call us -- little Mexicans or little wetbacks, or whatever -- we'd smile at them because our dad would say, 'Look, by the time this is all over they're going to be thanking us for being here.' And he was right."