Rene Lopez has spent more than three decades carving out a lane all his own—an ever-evolving blend of outlaw country swagger, New York soul grit, and the restless fire of a lifelong songwriter who can’t help but tell the truth. Born and raised between the Bronx and Manhattan, and carrying the musical lineage of his father, the legendary trumpet player Rene Lopez Sr. (Ray Barretto, Tipica 73), Lopez grew up surrounded by rhythm, melody, and the sense that music wasn’t just a career path—it was a calling.

His own journey began in the early 1990s with The Authority, a hard-grooving, genre-bending band that became a fixture in New York’s explosive downtown scene. At a time when Times Square was still wild and the city’s clubs pulsed with every shade of rock, funk, and hip-hop, The Authority held their own. They played wherever the electricity of the night took them—Wetlands, CBGB, Nightingales, countless tri-state gigs—earning a reputation for high-energy shows and raw musicianship. Photographer Steve Eichner captured the band with the World Trade Center looming behind them, a time-stamped reminder of a New York that’s long gone but still alive in Lopez’s bones.

When The Authority’s run came to an end, Lopez carried that momentum forward. He stepped into a solo career that refused to sit still, diving into funk, soul, Latin rhythms, singer-songwriter intimacy, and the kind of Americana that somehow feels like both Manhattan and Nashville at once. Over the years, he released ten solo albums, toured relentlessly, collaborated with a wide circle of musicians, and became known for a sound that was unmistakably his—rhythmic, honest, and built on stories only a lifelong New Yorker could tell.

Now, in 2025, Lopez returns with A New York Lie, his eleventh solo album and the most personal of his career. Produced by Patrick Sansone of Wilco and recorded with a trusted circle of musicians, the record is a cinematic love letter and reckoning—part diary, part confession, part survival anthem. Lopez writes about memory, loss, fatherhood, resilience, and a city that gives and takes in equal measure. Songs like “Please Don’t Give Up,” “That’s The Truth,” and the title track reach back across decades of lived experience: growing up in the Bronx, grinding through the 90s NYC music scene, raising kids, getting knocked down, getting up again, and trying—always—to find grace in it all.

More than three decades after The Authority first plugged in, René Lopez is still driven by the same instinct that started it all: to make music that feels real. His voice carries the weight of memory, his songs blur the line between confession and celebration, and his performances—whether in a Brooklyn barroom or on a festival stage—prove that he’s still chasing the same spark he felt in 1990.

A storyteller. A survivor. A New Yorker through and through. And a musician who keeps finding new ways to tell the truth.

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