Mavericks ride high into Pittsburgh
The Mavericks’ map of country music would contain pushpins stuck into Cuba, Bakersfield, Calif., and somewhere along the Texas-Mexico border.
Their influences result in an equally zestful and smooth melting pot of sounds that the rejuvenated Miami-forged band will bring back to our area Saturday with a show at the Carnegie Library Music Hall of Homestead.
“What’s amazing, and this is the God’s honest truth, we’re honestly feeling so much more happy now,” said Raul Malo, singer for the Mavericks, which had broken up in 2004 before reuniting two years ago.
“We’re really enjoying it this time around much more than ever before; we’re not worrying about the little things and not getting caught up in the minutia of B.S.,” Maul said. “It’s really remarkable to be part of it and to share it with these guys who are very keen on protecting this thing of ours.”
That “thing” has long found popularity in Pittsburgh, with Malo quick to credit the city’s public radio station 91.3-WYEP for ample airplay and support.
It’s not like the local pop-country stations give airtime to the Mavericks, whose 2013 comeback album was released by Valory Music Group, a country label whose stable of stars includes Reba McEntire, Brantley Gilbert and Justin Moore.
The Mavericks’ latest album, “In Time,” reverts to the band’s prime influences; the bold country-rock twang and hint of rockabilly of the Bakersfield Sound, lively Tex-Mex mariachi, and saucy percussion straight out of Malo’s Cuban-American upbringing.
Though the biggest draw remains Malo’s clear-as-can-be voice, one of the finest of any genre. Even the band’s website concedes the common comparisons to the great Roy Orbison.
In a phone interview Monday, Maul said his singing voice starts with “a lot of god-gifted talent.
“But then there’s the matter of what you do with it,” he said. “I was lucky, I found my voice early on. The trick is finding your voice.”
By that, he means experimenting early with vocal styles, then once you hit on your natural one, continuing to hone it by performing “over and over and over again.”
To whatever level of subconsciousness, most singers start out imitating someone, Malo said.
“Even the greatest of the great,” Malo said, citing examples of Frank Sinatra starting out sounding like Bing Crosby; George Jones borrowing from Hank Williams; and Ray Charles lifting from Nat King Cole.
Who did Malo try to imitate at first?
“Elvis,” he said.
“But then I figured out I could do a pretty good Roy Orbison and I was like, ‘Oh, that changes everything.’ You mean I can hit this note? Cool. Let me try that one,” Malo said.
From there he manipulated his voice to match various other likings, perfecting the current sound that delivers so enticingly on “In Time” tunes that range from rockers (“Dance in the Moonlight”) romancers (“Back in Your Arms”) and torch songs (“In Another’s Arms.”) The guitar-bending notes of “Come Unto Me” grab your gut as Malo croons a physical and emotional yearning heightened further when repeated later on the album in Spanish as “Ven Hacia Mi.”
As with the band’s 1998 single “Dance the Night Away” — a WYEP favorite and Top-10 song in the U.K. — Malo’s lyrics are genius in simplicity; steering clear of clumsy metaphors or excessive layering to tell a story that’s easy to relate to, and in plain-spoken language.
“That’s just how I write. I don’t try to make it simple, I just really immerse myself in that old-school of songwriting,” Malo said. “Of course, it works having a great band to play that kind of music.”
He extends that minimalism to his stage banter.
“I never really talk much between songs. We just kind of play them,” Malo said. “People will ask sometimes, ‘Hey, why don’t you introduce your songs?’ but I’m like, I’m not playing them if they need introductions. Let the songs speak for themselves.”
They’ve spoken well on the first 10 weeks of the Mavericks’ critically lauded comeback tour, which hits its homestretch Saturday in Munhall.
“We’ve had a love affair with Pittsburgh for a long time,” Malo said. “I love the people there and that they support the arts. And there’s that groovy part of town.”
He likely meant the Cultural District, reflecting on a set of solo shows he played there in 2005 at Dowe’s on 9th jazz club.
“That Dowe was a cool cat. A jazz trombonist,” Malo said. “We had such a blast. I wasn’t with the Mavericks then, I was just doing solo shows with a guitar but we sold out in Pittsburgh, two nights no less, which made me wonder what the hell is going on here.
“I don’t know what it is about Pittsburgh,” he said, expertly setting up the punchline, “well, besides your discerning taste for excellent music.”
If all goes as planned Saturday, the Mavericks will treat their road crew to a late-night bite at Primanti’s in the Strip “to get those ridiculously obscenely large sandwiches,” Malo said.
That’s the kind of camaraderie that keeps a band intact.
“We got away from that early on and when you do that, pretty soon you have third-party conversations, and before you know it you’re talking to lawyers,” Malo said. “That’s real easy to do. We know what it takes to get to that point, and we’re making sure we don’t get to that point again.”
Buoyed by stout fan support for this tour, the Mavericks will forge ahead with a new album, Malo said, as well as embracing other ways to spread their music, like when “Come Unto Me” appeared late last year in the Sylvester Stallone-Robert DeNiro comedy “Grudge Match,” or the Mavericks’ cameo playing “Dance in the Moonlight” on ABC’s short-lived drama “Killer Women.”
Sure a crossover hit single would help band members’ bank accounts.
“That would be nice,” Malo said. “But we’ve got a healthy tour playing sold-out shows with fans coming out of the woodwork.”
We don’t have to play any sort of games or be beholden to any particular part of the industry. I’m loving where we are.
“It feels special every night we go on stage, and it should feel special every night.”