The Mavericks Earn Two Grammy Nominations for Mono

The Mavericks have never been the kind of band that readily fits one simple and convenient niche. “We never got picked up by the mainstream country market,” singer/songwriter/guitarist Raul Malo told us in an interview last September. “Of course, you can argue that we never were part of it. The crowd that listens to country isn’t going to listen to us. We’re making music with no guidelines, no parameters. But it’s a lot of fun. It’s been the story of my life from the beginning.”

Indeed, that outcast status has haunted them from the start. A country band originating in Miami with a Cuban frontman is hardly a formula that guarantees success. Lately, though, the group's fortunes seem to have changed. Last year, the Americana Music Association gave it the award for Best Duo or Group of the Year. More recently, it found itself with two Grammy nominations, for Best American Roots Song (“All Night Long”) and Best Americana Album (Mono). Indeed, Mono has won universal praise from even the most discriminating critics. 
“This is why human beings make music,” the Los Angeles Times declared, naming it one of the top ten albums of 2015. “Experience shows in the range of its sound and the utter confidence with which it navigates the ground connecting country with classic rock and roll with the Latin diaspora, all behind the unmatchable vocals of Raul Malo, heartthrob for the ages,” said NPR while citing it as one of its Best Albums of 2015.

Rolling Stone even named it one of its Best Country Albums of 2015.

Indeed, the Mavericks' reunion in 2012 has brought the band the belated love that eluded it the first time around. The group — Malo, drummer Paul Deakin, guitarist Eddie Perez, and keyboardist Jerry Dale McFadden — has seen both its postreunion album — 2013‘s In Time — and the chart-topping Mono, heralded as the best efforts of its career.

“I don’t think there’s another business other than the music business where you experience the highs that you do and then the almost instantaneous lows,” Malo tells us. “Or where there are such extremes between the highs and the lows. But that’s OK... That’s life. We’ve had a great year — an amazing year — and it looks like it’s going to be an amazing year ahead.”

The Mavericks, with Texas Tornados, Delbert McClinton, and more. 11 a.m. to 4 a.m. Saturday, February 6, at the Magic City Casino, 450 NW 37th Ave., Miami; 305-649-3000; magiccitycasino.com. Tickets for the entire day cost $125 to $1,000 plus fees via shoreleaveshowdown.jigsy.com.