Founded in the early 1980s by guitarist Dave Gonzalez and his high school friend and double bass player Thomas Yearsley, they have recorded nine studio albums and built a reputation as a hard-working live band.

[1] Their second album, Years Since Yesterday, produced by Los Lobos' Steve Berlin and Mark Linnet, was released on Alligator Records in 1989 and had sold more than 20,000 copies by the end of the year; the band shot a music video for the title song at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, California for $30,000.

[2] Spending most of their time on the road, by 1989 they had already toured with Stevie Ray Vaughan, Los Lobos, The Blasters and the Fabulous Thunderbirds.

[3] In 1990 the Paladins released their third record, Let's Buzz, "an invigorating blend of rockabilly, blues, rhythm-and-blues and country" recorded in the Los Angeles studio of 1970s soul star Leon Haywood (who also played keyboards on the album), produced again by Steve Berlin and Mark Linnet[4] and released by Alligator.

[10] The Paladins appeared to have come to an end in 2004 when Gonzalez wanted to focus on different musical interests after having formed an alt-country band Hacienda Brothers.