An Evening with The Mavericks

Blending everything from Tex-Mex to Cuban bolero, R&B and blues, to country and rock and roll, the genre-defying Mavericks have made a triumphant return to the Americana scene since they first burst onto the scene in back in 1989. Led by singer/songwriter Raul Malo the band was formed in Florida in the late ’80s and signed with major recording label MCA Records. Their blend of Cuban grooves and Bakersfield-inspired twang netted them several County Music Awards and Academy of Country Music Awards plus a Grammy in 1995. They charted numerous singles including “O What a Thrill,” “There Goes My Heart” and “Dance the Night Away” and albums while earning accolades as one of the finest live bands in the business.

Today, the Mavericks have declaring their independence and stepped out on their own with Brand New Day, the first studio album released on Mono Mundo Recordings, the label they founded in 2016. Brand New Day is the follow-up to the widely praised albums Mono (2015) and In Time (2013).

Flashing the same exhilarating, beyond-category style that has defined the Mavericks, the new album introduces a collection of taut, energetic, economical songs sure to be embraced by both original fans of their top-10 albums and hit singles of the ‘90s and a new generation of listeners who have joined the party since their triumphant 2012 reunion. It is the mature and timely work of an exciting and underestimated American band that has embraced its own destiny.

The new collection – co-produced like its immediate predecessors by the band’s golden-voiced singer Raul Malo and Niko Bolas (Neil Young, Warren Zevon, Melissa Etheridge), who is partnered with the band in the new Mono Mundo imprint – features the core members of the group since their reformation: Malo, drummer Paul Deakin, guitarist Eddie Perez, and keyboardist Jerry Dale McFadden, along with auxiliary members “the Fantastic Four” filling out the set’s brawny sound with their signature accordion and horns.

The album contains a diverse selection of originals that show off the Mavericks’ always multi-faceted musical personality, including the boldly upbeat title song, the tejano/bluegrass flavored “Rolling Along”, the intensely romantic “Goodnight Waltz,” the blues-fueled “Ride With Me,” and the thematically pointed “Easy As It Seems” and “Damned (If You Do).”

Brand New Day flexes the category-defying approach that has been a unique hallmark of the Mavericks’ sound since the band’s top-20 hits on the country charts. The album’s 10 new songs seamlessly merge strains of Tex-Mex, Cuban bolero, R&B, blues, country, and rock ‘n’ roll. “I came up with a new category called ‘non-gen’,” Deakin says with a laugh. “We don’t seem to operate with many preconceived parameters. Raul’s writing, which in my opinion… keeps getting better every time we go back in the studio, doesn’t limit us to any one format. It’s a band of audiophiles. Honestly, before we go on stage and after we get off stage, we’re listening to music from every imaginal genre. I think that appreciation of all music naturally comes through when we make records.”

Malo sees the expansive music on Brand New Day not merely as an expression of his personal roots, but also as a nod to the richness of their artistic sources. He says, “I live in Nashville, but I’m still as Cuban as if I was in Miami. But American music is such a beautiful landscape, and there are so many things to draw from. As a Latino, you’re trying to assimilate into this culture, and you’re taking it all in, and some of it grabs you by the throat and you can’t let go of it. All of it is part of your vocabulary.  It’s all Americana, and now more than ever those differences, and that inclusion, need to be celebrated and need to be talked about.”