A Good Year for the Outlaw

The Mavericks

The genius of Raul Malo and The Mavericks has long been underappreciated by some and totally unappreciated by idiotic country radio consultants.

This band, like the Kentucky Headhunters, can do anything, but the stuff I like the best is their retro-sounding straight ahead country, particularly on their masterpiece CD “What A Crying Shame” (1994). 

That CD featured the title cut, still one of the best country songs of all time, for my money, and the peppy “There Goes My Heart”, one of those songs with a sad story disguised by uptempo, finger snapping, danceable music. Not that I’m a big dancer, but I’m a helluva finger snapper.

Malo’s vocals are very much reminiscent of Roy Orbison, and his range is incredible. The band followed up “What A Crying Shame” with “Music For All Occasions” just one year later, which featured another great uptempo country rocker, “All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down”. Yet another sad story hidden by a fast paced, bright sound. For that song, the band had the great Flaco Jiminez (Texas Tornados) come in a lay down an accordian track, as only Flaco could do. If you are a fan of Tex-Mex, as I am, Flaco is a God.

These two CD’s are the ones you need to have if you want to hear what The Mavericks are all about, as they are the award-winning standard bearers for the group, which won CMA’s twice for best vocal group, and a Grammy during the time those two CD’s were hot. But just like the Headhunters, as soon as the awards were won, country radio turned their back on them. I don’t know why this continually happens (Highway 101, Pirates of the Mississippi, and Alison Krauss and Union Station immediately come to mind as bands that win awards and immediately get ignored by country consultants), but it is simply true that if you’re not a solo hat act like and your name isn’t Tim, Kenny, Toby, Alan, or George, you don’t get played consistently on country radio right now…but that’s another story.

During this time, the band’s lineup was it’s strongest, with Malo handling the vocals, Paul Deakin owning the drums, Robert Reynolds on bass, and Nick Kane playing some of the cleanest guitar solos you could ask for.  Also during this time, Reynolds was married to Trisha Yearwood, and she contributed backing vocals and a couple of duets on these two CD’s, including a cover of Frank and Nancy Sinatra’s “Something Stupid”.  Malo and Yearwood’s version, it goes without saying, was a tad better than Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman, although Nicole actually did a decent job on that one.

After those two CD’s, the band branched out into more than just country (why not, country radio wasn’t playing their stuff anyway) and in 1998 they came out with the wild “Trampoline”. It’s not my cup of tea, it’s not as good as the previous two discs, but Malo wanted to show his abilities in other forms of music and I can appreciate it for what it is.

The band split after that, just as a live album was released (”It’s Now, It’s Live” – 1999). Another live album was recently released, called “Mavericks Live In Austin, TX”, (2004) which is just a greatest hits package done in a concert, and it’s pretty good.

Malo got Reynolds and Deakin back together, joined by new guitarist Eddie Perez, in 2003 for an album called simply “The Mavericks” (not to be confused with their debut album from 1990 called “Mavericks”), and it was also pretty darn good stuff, back to retro and mainstream country, and Malo still showing his singing chops.

I found another early Mavericks gem, “From Hell To Paradise” (1992), pre-Nick Kane, but a fine album, and actually the album that featured their first chart single – a cover of Hank Williams’ “Hey, Good Lookin’”. That song introduced country audiences to The Mavericks, and the CD I mentioned above, “What A Crying Shame”, is the one that really put them on the map.

Malo is now behind the scenes, and has been working with Rick Trevino for the past few years. Malo is of Cuban descent, Trevino is of Mexican heritage and sounds just like Raul when he wails. It’s the exact same scenario as when Paul McCartney used Beatle-esque material to bring Badfinger to prominence.

Grab “What A Crying Shame”, and see what country radio COULD and SHOULD sound like today when they play an “oldie” in between all the new stuff.