Roots rockers Los Lobos [ tickets ] will put down their electric instruments in February and launch a 16-city acoustic tour supporting their recently released album, "The Town and the City."

The trek, which kicks off Feb. 8 in La Jolla, CA, will feature a mix of songs from the new set as well as a selection of traditional folkloric tunes celebrating the band's Latin American heritage, "focusing on the rich diversity of Mexico's music, where the vocal treatment, instrumentation and rhythm differ from region to region," according to a press release.

"The Town and the City," the 13th studio album of the band's 28-year recording career, hit stores Sept. 12. The group self-produced the 13-track set, which features a series of first-person stories dealing with immigration.

"We didn't set out to create a concept album," songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Louie Perez said in a press release. "But when [guitarist/vocalist] David [Hidalgo] brought me the demo of 'The Valley,' I began to imagine indigenous people traveling across the land to a new place and how the promise of a new life doesn't always jibe with the realities."

Saxophonist/keyboardist Steve Berlin added that the band "tried to make each song into a miniature movie, using sounds as paint, which would all tie together into a coherent statement. Although there are songs in Spanish, it's a universal story in that all of us are constantly moving from one place to another. We're all caught up in the tide of history."

In other Los Lobos news, Hidalgo's accordion work is featured on Ramblin' Jack Elliot's "I Stand Alone" album, which received a Grammy nomination earlier this month.