ANALYSIS/OPINION:
For Raul Malo, the Miami-born son of Cuban immigrants, his fascination with music started when he heard the songs of Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline.
Sure, he listened to other genres, but traditional country is what prompted him to start his own band in the late ’80s that morphed into the alt-country pioneers The Mavericks. Many credit Mr. Malo, 49, and the band with inventing the alt-country subgenre.
But a funny thing has happened in the 25 years since the band was born: Music insiders now call it Americana.
“I’m glad to be in Americana, even if I am the token Latino,” Mr. Malo said with a laugh during a past tour stop in D.C. “For starters, I was invited to the party. You get invited and you take it. That’s about as honest an answer as I can give you. Plus, I feel Americana should be, and it is to many degrees, a land of misfits. And that’s OK. It’s a wonderful thing.”
To appreciate that statement, consider Mr. Malo’s idols — all misfits who played “hillbilly” music when Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and the early rock ’n’ rollers were the rage. When Mr. Malo began his country career, he and his band were the misfits who competed with the Latin-influenced music of Gloria Estefan, Los Lobos and Julio Iglesias, not to mention performers from other genres such as Bobby Brown, Poison and Janet Jackson.
It’s fair to say that the “misfit” tag is nothing new to Mr. Malo and his bandmates. And they’ve embraced it. They took a seven-year hiatus during which the bandmates stayed in touch but explored their own side projects. And they rejected what Mr. Malo called “carrots on sticks” that music insiders hoped would reunite them.
Candidly, Mr. Malo said, he thought The Mavericks were over. One reason was the shifting landscape that mixed and matched rock with country. But the persistence of insiders, his own songs that sounded to his ear like Mavericks’ tunes and the willingness of the members to reunite changed his mind.
Just before releasing their 2013 album “In Time,” Mr. Malo led The Mavericks to the Americana Music Association Awards, where they received cheers, kudos and a standing ovation. It mirrored the enthusiastic reception Mr. Malo received in 2008, when he performed Jimmy Webb’s song “Wichita Lineman” during the AMA tribute to Glen Campbell. And it was much like the one he received that same year after performing the Marty Robbins’ standard “Old El Paso” during the nationally televised “Outlaw Trail” concert in Austin, Texas.
Soon after Valory Music, part of the country-centric Big Machine Label Group, released “In Time,” the aggregate service Metacritic (which compiles ratings from major music critics) deemed the album almost universally acclaimed. It did well commercially, too, reaching No. 8 on the Billboard Country Albums chart and No. 39 on the Billboard 200.
So why aren’t Mr. Malo and his Grammy Award-winning band considered country?
Mr. Malo told Rolling Stone that The Mavericks are working on their next album. When it’s released next year, don’t expect to hear the rock- or pop-flavored country of the Country Music Association Awards (“The Biggest Night in Country”) show on Wednesday.
And don’t expect to see Mr. Malo and The Mavericks there. They’re on the road, playing their brand of country-alt-country-Americana-garage — or whatever label you want to put on it.
“There’s a whole section of the population that popular culture does not address or reach out to when they [play songs that] talk about just living for today. To me, that’s just a broken model,” he said. “And I see it everywhere. I see people my age and older who never go to concerts, who never go to movies. That’s why there’s a cottage industry growing around smaller venues and house concerts. They are just tired of it and I think we’re better off for it.”
Spoken like a true country music misfit.
If You Go:
WHAT: Raul Malo and The Mavericks
WHERE: The State Theatre, 220 N. Washington St., Falls Church, Virginia
WHEN: 7 p.m. Saturday
TICKETS: $40 to $50
CONTACT: 703-237-0300, www.statetheatre.com
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