{"id":11387,"date":"2016-08-29T05:30:41","date_gmt":"2016-08-29T09:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=11387"},"modified":"2016-08-28T21:42:21","modified_gmt":"2016-08-29T01:42:21","slug":"the-mavericks-norteamericana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2016\/08\/29\/the-mavericks-norteamericana\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mavericks: norteAmericana"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nominally a country and western\/roots band, the Mavericks<\/b> <\/a>have long been truly unclassifiable. Their musical eclecticism has always been a part of the band’s makeup, but since coming back from an eight-year hiatus, the Mavericks have made that eclectic character a central component in their music. Leader and songwriter Raul Malo<\/b> explains the difference between the old and newer Mavericks. \u201cBack then, we were kids. We were just trying stuff out, and trying to expand our wings within the confines of a country music major label.\u201d<\/p>\n

But when the band members went their separate ways in 2004, Malo says that \u201ceverybody went on a kind of musical quest, went their own way. And I think all that information has now informed this new era of the Mavericks.\u201d Since re-forming in 2012, the Mavericks have released two albums \u2013 In Time<\/i>, and 2015’s critically-acclaimed Mono<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\"mavericks\"<\/p>\n

\u201cOn Mono<\/i>, the eclecticism is what’s celebrated the most,\u201d Malo says. \u201cAsk 10 different people what the Mavericks are, and you’re gonna get 10 different answers. So we might as well do whatever we want anyway!\u201d On Mono, the group tears through a wide variety of styles, from Cuban salsa to Tex-Mex country, giving it all the trademark Mavericks sound, with Malo’s supple voice at the center of things.<\/p>\n

When it’s suggested that \u201cnorteAmericana\u201d might be an accurate one-word descriptor for the Mavericks’ music, Malo laughs heartily and says, \u201cI like it.\u201d But he notes that there’s never a conscious or specific goal in songwriting or arrangement to put forth a particular style. \u201cI don’t think anybody in the band starts out thinking, ‘Oh, let’s do this one like this.’ We just start playing; once a song starts to get a groove, that’s what it ends up sounding like.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the mid 1990s, the Miami band scored major plaudits: the Mavericks won three Academy of Country Music Awards, two Country Music Association Awards, and a Grammy. But by the early 2000s, internal dissension would eventually fracture the group. \u201cEverybody was pretty burned out at that point,\u201d Malo admits. \u201cIt was a pretty monotonous existence, and quite honestly there was turmoil within the band.\u201d Even after they got back together, problems remained; in 2014 the band dismissed bassist and founding member Robert Reynolds<\/b>.<\/p>\n