Remember the ubiquity of Dance The Night Away; how you couldn't turn on a radio, walk into a pub or tune in to the TV without hearing it. Consider then how it affected the band. Ten years, a bellyfull of clubs and a handful of albums building a career profile as a one of the great American bands, fusing country, pop, rock, r&b and Latino into an improbable, genre busting creation of their very own erased as they became both darlings and terrors of the TOGS. Swallowed whole by Radio 2, The Mavericks were almost drowned in the rustle of polyester as they soundtracked parents parties to the disbelief of offspring who didn't realise their biker club beginnings or the grit of their live shows. Inevitably, it seemed. the strain of success worked its charms; vocalist Raul Malo went off to pursue Latinate solo dreams whilst the band's rhythm section, bassist Robert Reynolds and drummer Paul Deakin took to the roots road revisiting their origins with up and coming singer / writer Kevin Montgomery. Guitarist Nick Kane simply split. The 'break' extended and extended punctuated only by the appearance of budget hits compilations. The Mavericks, it seemed safe to assume, were no more.
The Empire, Sunderland - 30th October 2003 pic ©Rob & Michelle van Vlijmen
And then, five years down the line, the word arrives that The Mavericks are together again, have signed a new record deal, recorded a new album and booked a generous seventeen date UK tour. The divorce, it seems, was a failure.
"It's a funny thing", bassist Robert Reynolds tells me, "we never went that far. We never filed the papers, we just said, let's take a break, have fun doing what you want to do and talk later."
Was it, I asked him, a case of success, after the years of searching for it, being less fun than imagined.
"Oh yes, it can be brutal on your personal life. You're never at home to do the work on children, relationships, the things that each of us had. We weren't there for those things. There's a cost, for sure and it that way, the break was very valuable."
And
if this looks like a kind of wimp's whinge - after all one hit single
and a couple of years in the limelight don't seem that hard, Reynolds
stresses that there was far more to it; "We'd been together since '89
and most of us had been toiling in the same kind of thing for years,
so by '99 we were approaching 20 or more years of clubbing and
roadwork, y'know."
Time off for Reynolds (pictured left at The Empire, Sunderland - 30th October 2003 © Marie-Elaina Attrell) was filled with a 'pleasant, love filled' divorce (from country star Trisha Yearwood), a period of songwriting, living on savings, light roadwork with Kevin Montgomery and meeting the woman who recently became the new Mrs. Reynolds. In short time to recharge so was there some trepidation when the idea to reform The Mavericks was floated.
"The light answer is that it was a thrill to think that we were going to do it again but the other side of the coin is that, yes, I had some anxieties about falling into old patterns. I felt like I had finally rid myself of some of the more uncomfortable stuff and I was hoping that if we were going to get back together we were going to do it with a new maturity, that some growing up had happened, that every one had taken stock of their lives and was coming back a better person for it."
Does that suggest, I venture, that being the biggest band in the world is taking a back seat to simply making great music this time around?
"You know, when you're young and finally in a band with the endless potential that I've always thought The Mavericks had you want to be the next Beatles. I admired The Beatles and I wanted to get to the same heights which is obviously a lofty wish but when the band was finally selling a few million records and we won a Grammy and I was starting to live the dream, that dream seemed to take priority over everything else. Now I think that the title of the biggest band in the world wasn't ours to have, we weren't even going to be the biggest band in country music but for a moment we were arguably the most popular. You put a few gold discs on the wall and eventually you think hey, I've had my share, you get older and wiser and find some perspective."
Perspective, and the finding of it, was, in many ways, at the roots of The Mavericks failure to ever achieve the huge crossover success that many feel should have been there for the taking. See, the music biz, especially in the US didn't know whether they were a country band, rock band, Latin band easy listening band or whatever. And whilst this cocktail was, and remains, a joy to the fans, it was a perspective that the blinkered biz couldn't handle.
"We were the same melting pot that the
United States is in human terms on a musical level," Reynolds tells
me, "though it's not just American music that's fueled this band.
It's as much The Hollies and The Beatles and musicians from all over
the world." We talk about the Beatles for a while pondering that
their mix of Motown, Buck Owens and Brill Building would be hard to
place in these days of focus groups. Robert agrees and whilst
insisting that his own group aren't in the same league adds, with far
too much modesty, "I think The Mavericks have made some charming
records and I think they have a 
staying
power. I think the records that we've made are, let's say a young guy
or girl bought our first million seller, the Crying Shame album in
'94 or '95, I believe that they could keep it in their collection and
play it for a very long time. I have records in my collection that I
will always have and I have records that I probably should get rid
of, putting the odd tracks that I want on an iPod, but fans tell me
that our old albums constantly remind them of great times they've
had."
I mention to Robert that way back, interviewing band mate Paul Deakin about the time that Trampoline came out, I'd observed that the album sounded like an auto change record player loaded with great 45s, adding that The Mavericks had the same quality. It suggests that rather than making albums they go in to the studio looking to cut a collection of A sides.
"That's great to hear, I know Raul (pictured left The Empire, Sunderland - 30th October 2003 © Marie-Elaina Attrell) would be pleased with that. He is a human jukebox, he loves music. I mean I do to but Raul is building this massive catalogue of music. He knows the roots of all these musics and his collection is so diverse."
It's a diversity and understanding that underpins the 'comeback' album; from the Norman Petty-ish piano opening of kick off cut I Want To Know, an opening lick soon cut into by a hot Gibson guitar lick that demonstrates that whilst the band love Buddy Holly they live in the here and now. It's the same trick with In My Dreams; there's a debt to Orbison for sure and a hint of Frank deVol in he strings but the muscularity of the guitars and rhythm section states quite clearly that it's no revival meeting. The Mavericks may confuse those looking for subtext but for anyone looking for great music in a band, the search stops here.
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