A NASHVILLE PARTY
The MaverickS Pull inTo Town wiTh a dance alerT froM The ProMoTer
As names go, The Mavericks turned out to be a pretty good one, as the Nashville band — by way of Miami — hasn’t had much use for the Music City formula.
Click on a Mavericks song and you might get a Tex-Mex jam, an Orbison-style ballad or an accordion-powered salsa tune — for starters. The styles bounce around too much for a label like MCA Nashville, on which the band started, to want a piece of it now.
But the band, led by the golden-voiced Raul Malo, still likes working out of its adopted hometown of Nashville.
“We moved here 25 years or so,” says the Miami-born Cuban-American singer. “I always thought I would just be here a short time, and you end up staying longer, and before you know it, you have kids and they’re in school and you’ve bought a house and you’ve made a life here. That’s all right. It’s a lovely town, a lovely city. I know it confuses people from time to time whether we’re a country band. The fact that we live in Nashville and not in Texas or LA probably confuses the issue even more, but so what, that’s their problem, not mine.”
The band resides on the Vallory Music label, a subsidiary of Big Machine that affords the group the luxury of painting outside the lines.
“I think sometimes the greater the risk, the greater the reward,” Mr. Malo says. “We try not to rest on our laurels and try to keep things moving forward — at least for us, just to keep it interesting. If that translates to people digging the music, no matter what genre it is, that’s OK. I love the fact that we look into the audience and there are all walks of life. To me that’s what music does.
“I’ve witnessed it my whole life. As an artist, the ultimate goal is to communicate and sometimes you have to fight the forces that are always trying to keep you in a nice little box. And I don’t mean any disrespect by that, because, honestly, it’s a lot easier to sell, and that’s their job. We make it interesting, jumping all over the place like we do.”
The Mavericks, which formed in 1989, produced six albums and charted more than a dozen country hits before splitting up in 2004. The singer made five solo albums before The Mavericks reunited in 2011 for the vibrant comeback album, “In Time.” With its rare blend of genres, the band was a welcome addition back on the scene.
“I think we’re appreciated a bit more now overall, and especially in Nashville,” he says. “It’s different now. You don’t have all the fancy awards and all that stuff, but that doesn’t mean that can’t happen. Aside from that, there’s a genuine appreciation for the band, and that’s how it’s felt since we got back together.”
Having gotten back into playing shape with extensive touring behind “In Time,” The Mavericks have returned with an eighth album, “Mono,” recorded with spontaneity in mind.
“Normally, everybody wants work tapes and they want to hear demos just to hear what we’re gonna do,” Mr. Malo says. “This time around, we were touring a lot and even though I had songs, I really didn’t have time to make demos or work tapes. I’d rather spend time writing the songs than demo-ing them up.
“Also, I think with a band as good as The Mavericks, what you want to do is play to the strengths. One of the strengths is getting everybody involved in the arrangements and getting everybody chiming in. Sometimes we’re all on the same page, sometimes we’re not. That’s how we approach it and no one had any preconceived notions as to what the songs were. I would just play them on guitar and piano and start a vibe and before you knew it, people were picking up their instruments and jamming along and throwing in ideas. And after we got a sense of how it goes, we’d press record.”
The album title refers to the engineering process, not the childhood illness.
“It’s going to sound the same out of both sides of your headphones,” the singer explains. “In layman’s terms, everything is just mixed down the middle, so you have one channel of audio, you don’t have two. Engineers really say stereo is an illusion anyway. We listen in mono, in two channels of mono. In a way it’s kind of its own little musical truth. It was really just for us to present this music in as honest and as simple a way as possible, and in mono, there is no fooling the ear. You can’t hide in mono. If it’s out of tune, if it’s out of whack, you’re going to hear it. And that’s what we found out about it. Every instrument found its own sonic real estate and it was really fun to witness that.”
Now, on the current tour, new material like Latin party jam “All Night Long,” skaflavored “Summertime (When I’m With You),” country-western ballad “Pardon Me” and rockabilly romp “Stories We Could Tell” have to be squeezed into an already crowded set.
“We always want to play a lot of the new album,” he says. “We always feel that if you’re making a record, they should be worth playing live. I found that growing up and seeing my favorite artists that they would give you a rehash of their hits in some sort of medley or something. I would rather hear them play their new material than some half-assed version of a song they couldn’t care less about playing. I never wanted that to be the approach. I’ve seen Springsteen many times and I love that he mixes up live set and mixes in different things every night, and every tour has a different set list. It keeps everyone on their toes, including the audience. They know he’s going to come back and it’s still a great three-hour show even if he didn’t play ‘Rosalita.’ ”
The challenge for the audience, especially in a venue like the Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall, is trying to keep the peace between the sitters and the dancers. There’s even a “Dance Alert” warning on the Drusky Entertainment website to choose your seats wisely.
“It’s a real issue because a lot of times we get booked in these nice halls that are seated, but people want to get up anyway,” he says. “But some people don’t want to get up and they’re just there to listen. I don’t get what the allure of having a front row seat is if you’re gonna sit there. But to each his own. People come out to a show and enjoy it however they enjoy it, and the tricky part is to find a balance between all parties. Our favorite venues to play have a floor that is standing and balcony is seated. If you want a seat, purchase a seat. Otherwise get ready to rock out. More people want to get up and groove and have a good time. I think the ones who want to sit might be more boisterous. The band is a groove-oriented band and people who come out to hear us want to see us and have fun and groove.”