The Mavericks: The OG Road Dogs Deliver The Goods & Dopamine Rushes

One never knows where the Mavericks will appear.

Playing Merle Haggard’s “Okie from Muskogee,” opening for a then-unknown Marilyn Manson in a Miami Beach punk bar…

Headlining multiple nights at the UK’s hallowed Royal Albert Hall…

Hitting Stagecoach – horn section blazing – for all it’s worth…

Casting off from Miami on Cayamo or the Outlaw Cruise, crowd churning to the dance rhythms, signaling a musical meltdown at sea…

Supporting Dwight Yoakam, Joan Jett or REO Speedwagon…

Cutting against the grain of the mainstream has allowed the progressively-retro-beyond-country band to explore luxurious torch pop, Tejano, classic country, sweeping rock,

Cuban, rumba, samba and tango rhythms over three decades.

Starting in Miami in 1989, the Mavs were atypical teens. When Magic City’s national presence was straddling a dance/hip-hop era of Luther Campbell’s 2 Live Crew and Gloria Estefan, Mavs’ lead singer/songwriter Raul Malo, the son of Cuban émigrés was a multicultural musical sponge who loved Frank Sinatra, Elvis and Louis Prima. Forming a band with roots/country/punk musicians, they played punk bars, then released The Mavericks on Miami indie Y&T Records in 1990.

A bidding war ensued in Nashville. After signing with Tony Brown, the producer/label exec deemed “The King of Nashville” by the L.A. Times, their fusion of influences thrilled critics but vexed country radio and mainstream music business types. Rather than change the music, the Mavericks became a live force.

“The musical rollercoaster our fans have been on is a lot of fun,” says Malo. “We’ve been having this conversation with the audience for decades now, and live is where our idiosyncrasies, eccentricities, whims or whatever you call it gets showcased.

“For record companies, that [genre-merging] was always a struggle, but our fans? They love it. Every curveball, whim, eccentricity or just trying something? They love it – and us for going there.”

Understand: this is a band that released a cover of Springsteen’s “All That Heaven Will Allow” to country radio in 1995 at the height of Garth Brooks’ cowboy-ism, brought Augie Meyers in to record Doug Sahm’s “Nitty Gritty” and injected a technicolor sense of style to their album covers, fashion choices and song selections. Though they’ve charted just once in the Billboard Country Top 10 with “All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down,” the band, certified platinum, won both the Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music Group of the Year multiple times and picked up a Grammy for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for the sweeping “Here Comes The Rain.”

“You can’t really pinpoint who they are, and that makes it exciting,” says CAA’s Clint Wiley, the Mavericks’ agent since their 2012 reunion. “You could say ‘country-Latin,’ but that isn’t really it.”

Pausing a moment, Wiley chuckles and gets honest, “Really, it’s a party onstage, straight up.

“They’re kind of a Swiss Army knife band. No matter what kind of crowd or lineup we put the Mavericks with, they’re going to go out and not just deliver, but really bring it home. And what they do is easy to get, because no matter what language you speak, everyone likes to have a good time.”

Steve Lurie, who started booking Malo solo shows on sightseeing boats sailing around New York Harbor, agrees. Having booked the band in New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware and at New York’s Clearwater Festival, counts their Tarrytown Music Hall plays: “One, two, three…six, seven, eight… 15, 16, 17, 18 shows! Some years were two and three dates, but those tickets are always gone.”

The Mavericks have done solid business as both headliners and support, grossing more than $14 million since 1999 according to 269 Pollstar Boxoffice reports. There’s an 11-year gap from the band’s time apart and the reports don’t include their ‘90s heyday. Last year, they grossed $1.4 million at New York’s Beacon Theater, $131,898 at Minneapolis’ State Theater and $117,827 at Clearwater, Florida’s Ruth Eckerd Hall, as well as several multiple night plays at San Francisco’s Fillmore and festivals including Bristol, Tennessee’s Rhythm & Roots.

“The Mavericks are a blast! They’re probably the most fun show; not that we don’t have other fun shows, but it’s always a party when they come to town,” Tarrytown Music Hall promoter Lurie said. “They’re all so enthusiastic about performing, communicating with each other – and the audience picks up on that musicianship. There are so many styles of music, horn players who grew up on jazz, Raul listening to music from all over the world. It’s a complex stew, and there’s only one act like them because of it.”

Look at their last decade of recorded work: the all-Spanish En Espanol; seriously swinging – even funky – Play The Hits; gleaming Rat Pack cheer Hey! Merry Christmas!; myriad Latin rhythms, bravura emotions and classic songwriter pop on Brand New Day or In Time and the slinky romp fest Mono. Surging, sexy, in command, as Knuckleheads’ Frank Hicks raves about the torque the Mavericks create, “They look like they’ve never rehearsed a day in their lives. It’s so free and loose, so much joy on that stage, they make people happy. But you listen to what’s happening on that stage, and it’s hardcore and exact.”

“One of the cool things,” says Sixthman CEO Jeff Cuellar, “are all the Latin rhythms, the Afro-Cuban undertows. Their flexibility as both musicians and artists. They can do anything. If Cayamo is very much about the songwriting, Outlaw is all about the performances; these guys thrive on all of it. You can see it on their faces. They create moments with Emmylou (Harris), Taylor (Goldsmith) and Grace Potter on one cruise, then they’ve got Jesse Dayton, Kyle Gass (Tenacious D) who was just sailing with us as a guest – and an Elvis impersonator jumps up with them; instead of chaos, Raul and the band laugh and turn into it, make it something everyone’s blown away by.

“They can set the tone with the Sail Away on Outlaw or get the people up dancing their faces off on Cayamo, which is why after this year’s Cayamo – their ninth sail with us – they should be in our Hall of Fame.”

Like so many sources for this story, Cuellar is almost giddy talking about the 10-piece group anchored by Malo, drummer/percussionist/founding member Paul Deakin, lead guitarist Eddie Perez and keyboardist Jerry Dale McFadden, who’s a fountain of Pee-wee Herman-esque exuberance. Flashy dressers all, they bring a vibe, as well as a full horn section, percussionists and other musicians who can pivot on a dime – and groove while they’re doing it.

“That’s a model that works really well for us, for me, especially, with my wanting to go all over the place musically,” Malo says. “Everybody in this band plays whatever we throw at them. It’s what makes it fun for us. And the fans love it so much, it’s what takes us from town to town.

“The way people make it sound, like we’re happy and smiling all the time, well, we are. Apparently, the horn section has their own show going on behind me that I hadn’t seen until I looked at some fan videos. That’s the idea, right? Have fun with this. Music is the one thing that brings people together, regardless of politics or their beliefs. It feels too good; there’s too much dopamine. The more people my age [58] get conservative and grumpy, the more I go the other direction.”

That other direction suits America – and the rest of the world – just fine. With stints on Delbert McClinton’s Sandy Beaches Cruise and Cayamo ahead in 2024, the band’s “Moon & Stars Tour” focuses on the U.S. through mid-April, then Europe starting April 20 for shows including Glasgow, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin and Stockholm.

“We started going to Europe for survival, really,” Malo says of their overseas strength. “At that point, country radio had had enough of our musical shenanigans. We’d released Trampoline; the numbers in Europe were getting very real. Then BBC2 picked the album up, giving us a lot of rotations. When they went after ‘All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down,’ it exploded.

“The hybrid Latin-country I was hearing in my head wasn’t happening here, but it was taking off in the UK, so we went. It’s expensive, especially with a band, so you need to know you’re going to make money. But we were looking for a break … and that’s when it started to sink in: what made us different wasn’t going to sit well with mainstream record labels or radio, but the people love it. They showed us what we should be doing.”
That adapt midstream, follow-the-music quixotism might seem like folly. Except the band’s healthier and more in-demand than ever. Ferocious musicality, insatiable wanderlust and “why not?” ethos fires The Mavericks.

“They like doing new things,” Wiley offers. “They don’t complain if they go into a new market and it’s half full. They know if they come back, it’s going to be packed. We try not to overplay, and we’re seeking different opportunities all the time. It makes it fun.”
There will be a run of Malo solo dates – like his recent tour with Americana queen Patty Griffin. There’ll be a Canadian run for the band in 2024, as well as summer and beyond shows focused on Moon & Stars, the Mavericks’ first original all-English project since 2017’s Brand New Day.

Recorded in Santa Fe, New Mexico; Louisiana and Nashville, Malo thinks the project has “a lot of the spirit of these places.” The dramatic Western-tinged project also features Sierra Ferrell, Nicole Atkins and Maggie Rose. Foreboding in places, deeply romantic in others, the lyrics offer a reckoning that is almost a love child of Los Lobos, gypsy jazz and The Band.

The unlikely adds a brio to what they’re chasing. Even REO Speedwagon held a thrill for Malo & Co. Malo explains, “Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Lincoln, Nebraska, a whole new audience who are a bunch of rock ‘n’ roll fans. It was a really interesting pairing, because their show is so musical and tight. And those songs? They’d been around since before I was in high school, in movies and mix tapes you made for people.

“It was like riding a Harley Davidson, that feeling that’s nostalgic and so in the moment. When ‘Time for Me To Fly’ hits on that chorus, that chord? That’s what music should do to you.”

There are also their “destination” multiple- night stands everywhere from New Braunfels, Texas’ Gruene Hall to New York’s Tarrytown Music Hall, Kansas City’s Knuckleheads to Austin’s ACL Live Moody Theater and Charleston, South Carolina’s Charleston Music Hall. Built as an excuse for music lovers to travel for the weekend, the escape method suits the band – and the fans.

Knuckleheads’ Hicks says, “There’s not enough praise for me to tell you about this band. They have fun with what they’re doing. They make sure the audience is, too. While they take the music very seriously, you’d never know it by how they are onstage. That’s why people plan their vacations around the days the band’s here.”

Excruciatingly hot during the band’s last run at Knuckleheads, fans were lining up at 10 a.m. Hicks marvels, “Raul said, ‘You guys aren’t waiting for The Mavericks, are you?’ When they said they were, he brought them water, the other band members did, too. They really care about the people who are fans of the music. It shows onstage and in how they treat them.”

Having got off the major label carousel, now largely self-managed and releasing their projects on Mono Mundo, a label modeled after John Prine’s Oh Boy, the music is now exactly what they intend. With a strong social media presence, a videographer who understands distilling the band’s live essence into various social media clips, the focus is working with local promoters to make sure tickets can stay affordable enough everyone can come to the party.

“We are adaptable,” Malo shrugs. “If we need to play acoustic, we will. We like to make things work, to try new stuff. When you start playing (as a kid), you’re trying to get girls. Later, you realize you’re telling a story, your story on some level and there’s a physical thing within you. When it’s good, you see the audience go home exhausted. They’ve given it all – and you’ve done your job, so the dopamine gets released and there’s a physical, spiritual atmospheric connection that happens.

“Mick Jagger and Willie Nelson have enough money, they don’t need to play. But they have something to say, to share. When they don’t – and we do shows with Willie, which are always interesting – they will stop. But there’s so much they have to connect. Bruce Springsteen, too.

“I think we’re like that. I had an epiphany with Elvis Presley and ‘It’s Now Or Never’ with that beautiful melody, the mandolin on the opening, how it builds. It was monumental the way that connected, and I’ve been chasing the dragon ever since. It led me down all these rabbit holes, but it also led me to how we come together and play live through the years.
“We’ve started seeking places that are destinations, where the fans can meet up from all over the place as friends. It adds actual culture to all of this, and we can all sleep in the same bed for a few days. The fans love it. There’s less wear and tear on the gear, and the crew, and the bones. It’s kind of what the Deadheads started out doing, and it builds a great community. Like I said: music is one of the few places where people come together and there’s a lot of love in the crowd. If we create that, that’s everything we’re about.”