A Tex-Mex equivalent of the Ry Cooder-produced Cuban supersession Buena Vista Social Club wasn't exactly inevitable. But it certainly makes sense, as the Lone Star State is full of regional music whose romantic allure has yet to be sold beyond the Hispanic community. Los Super Seven, produced by Steve Berlin of Los Lobos, is just the album to change that. It rounds up major figures from accordion-based conjunto and pop-charged Tejano (Flaco Jimenez and Ruben Ramos) and Texas country (Joe Ely and Rick Treviño), with a few mercurial good timers (Doug Sahm, Freddy Fender and, from Los Lobos, David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas), and finds an elegant, if slightly quaint, common ground among them all. Berlin and executive producer Dan Goodman act as curators, building a repertoire from traditional Mexican-American songs, from mariachi to rustic string music, as well as an Elysung cover of Woody Guthrie's "Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee)."

The result is folked-up, unplugged Tex-Mex for the NPR set (if only the sternum-rattling two-step of live conjunto could be captured in a good studio without rendering it harmless). But the music is seriously presented and, especially in strong vocal numbers from Hidalgo ("La Sirena") and Rosas ("Un Beso al Viento"), is often bewitching. (RS 797)

BEN RATLIFF