November 17, 2023 —– Chart #220
Hello Music Friends,
Hey folks, welcome to another edition of Chart of the Week. Today we are venturing much closer to current times with a wonderful song released in 2013, just ten short years ago. That’s new music in my world! The Mavericks are an American country music band from Miami, Florida. The band consists of Raul Malo (lead vocals, bass guitar), Paul Deakin (drums), Eddie Perez (lead guitar), and Jerry Dale McFadden (keyboards). Malo and Deakin founded the band in 1989 along with Robert Reynolds (bass guitar) and Ben Peeler (lead guitar). Today’s Chart is from their 2013 release “In Time”, a nostalgic tune called “Born To Be Blue”. This song is very catchy and quite reminiscent of the golden age of the distinctive baritone Roy Orbison.
In Time is the seventh studio album released by the Americana-neotraditional country-Tex-Mex band The Mavericks on February 26, 2013, on the Valory Music Group label, which is owned by Big Machine Records. The album was produced by Niko Bolas and Raul Malo. The album has achieved praise from the critics and according to Metacritic has garnered “universal acclaim”.
After one independent album, the band was signed by MCA Nashville Records and David Lee Holt replaced Peeler on lead guitar; he would be replaced by Nick Kane shortly after their second MCA album and third overall 1994’s What a Crying Shame. The band recorded a total of four albums for MCA and one for Mercury Records before disbanding in 2000. They reunited for one album in 2003 on Sanctuary Records, by which point Perez had become their fourth guitarist, and former touring keyboardist Jerry Dale McFadden became an official fifth member. The lineup of Malo, Deakin, Reynolds, Perez, and McFadden reunited a second time in 2012 for a series of new albums, first on Big Machine Records’ Valory imprint and then on Mono Mundo. Reynolds was fired in 2014 and Ed Friedland served as touring bassist until 2023.
The Mavericks have charted 15 times on the American Billboard Hot Country Songs charts; their highest-peaking single there is “All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down”, a collaboration with accordionist Flaco Jiménez which reached number 13 in 1996. Three of their singles made top 10 on the country music charts of the defunct RPM magazine in Canada, and “Dance the Night Away” was a hit single in the United Kingdom in 1998. Their most commercially successful album What a Crying Shame has been certified platinum in the United States and double-platinum in Canada. In addition, the band has received one Grammy Award, two Country Music Association awards, and three Academy of Country Music awards. Their sound is defined by a wide variety of musical styles outside of country music, such as Tejano, Latin, Americana, and the pop music of the 1950s, with particular emphasis on Malo’s singing voice.
Give this tune a whirl on your guitar and see if you can mimic that distinctive voice. Rock on my friends.
Keep Rockin’,
Stan Bradshaw