Photos by George Kopp
Lincoln Center Out of Doors is an annual summer celebration of free music, dance and spoken word at the beautiful Damrosch Park bandshell in Manhattan. On a hot and muggy night in late July, the Mavericks delivered a powerful performance to an adoring crowd. Under a full moon, the four core members of the band, Raul Malo, Eddie Perez, Paul Deakin and Jerry Dale McFadden, performed an enthusiastic set of their genre-defying mix of country, Latin and rockabilly influences. The silver-throated front man Raul Malo, whose voice is often compared to Roy Orbison, led the band through many of their hits, as well as new material from their recent release Mono. Mr. Malo did a beautiful solo acoustic version of Sinatra’s “Summer Wind.” The band also covered Creedence’s “Born on the Bayou,” which included verses from The Beatles’ “Within You Without You” and Harry Nilsson’s “Coconut.” A great show on a beautiful summer evening in New York City.
—George Kopp
[…] The Mavericks are not just your typical band from Miami, Florida. They are a band who cannot be pigeonholed into a single genre of music, as their musical talents range from country, rock, blues, Tex-Mex, rockabilly and ballads, mostly wrapped with a Latin flavor. Raul Malo, a Miami native born of Cuban decent is the perfect frontman for this band. He has the voice of an angel and can also rock out with the best. Not to mention, Malo makes women SWOON, something I have never witnessed before, with the exception of the old Warner Brothers cartoon “Swooner Crooner,” where all the henhouse chickens fainted over the Sinatra-like rooster. […]