Tag: the mavericks
GIVEAWAY: Enter to Win a Free Cabin on Cayamo’s 2024 Voyage
BGS is so excited to be returning to Cayamo in 2024 to once again set sail with the premier roots music cruise! From March 1 to 8, 2024, Cayamo will set sail from Miami, Florida porting in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic and Oranjestad, Aruba while the greatest artists and musicians in Americana soundtrack the picturesque voyage.
In partnership with Cayamo and Sixthman, we’re honored to once again be giving away a FREE CABIN to a lucky roots music fan, who will join their fellow roots-music lovers on board the sold-out journey. Enter to win here.
In addition to a complimentary cabin, the winners of this giveaway will enjoy concerts and performances by Lyle Lovett, Lake Street Dive, the Mavericks, Billy Bragg, Rodney Crowell, Shawn Colvin, Lucius, and many, many more. Plus, don’t miss our BGS-hosted events, parties, and shows – to be announced soon!
Enter before December 31, 2023, for your chance to win a free cabin on the 16th edition of Cayamo. Winners chosen before January 31, 2024. Official rules viewable at this link.
Artwork courtesy of Sixthman and Cayamo.
See Photos: Brandi Carlile, Charley Crockett Win at Americana Honors Show
The Americana Music Association celebrated distinguished members of its community at the 20th Annual Americana Honors & Awards at the historic Ryman Auditorium on September 22. Notable wins included Brandi Carlile as Artist of the Year and Sturgill Simpson’s Cuttin’ Grass – Vol. 1 (Butcher Shoppe Sessions), named Album of the Year. Among many other categories, blues guitarist and singer-songwriter Keb’ Mo’ received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Performance and fiddler Kristin Weber took home the award for Instrumentalist of the Year.
Here is the full list of winners:
ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Brandi Carlile
ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Cuttin’ Grass – Vol. 1 (Butcher Shoppe Sessions), Sturgill Simpson, Produced by David Ferguson & Sturgill Simpson
EMERGING ACT OF THE YEAR: Charley Crockett
DUO/GROUP OF THE YEAR: Black Pumas
INSTRUMENTALIST OF THE YEAR: Kristin Weber
SONG OF THE YEAR: “I Remember Everything,” John Prine, Written by Pat McLaughlin & John Prine
Legacy of Americana Award, presented in partnership with the National Museum of African American Music: Fisk Jubilee Singers
Lifetime Achievement Award for Performance: Keb’ Mo’ (below)
Lifetime Achievement Award for Producer/Engineer: Trina Shoemaker
Inspiration Award: Carla Thomas
Trailblazer Award: The Mavericks (below)
Photos on stage by Jason Kempin/Getty Images, courtesy of Americana Music Association
Photos backstage by Erika Goldring/Getty Images, courtesy of Americana Music Association
LISTEN: Julian Taylor, “Love Enough”
Artist: Julian Taylor
Hometown: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Song: “Love Enough”
Album: The Ridge
Release Date: May 8, 2020 (single); June 19, 2020 (album)
Label: Howling Turtle Inc.
In Their Words: “The thing about this song is that melody has lived with me for over a decade, but this one scared me — I never felt like I could get behind it and deliver this song honestly until everything in my world had essentially been taken away from me. The lyrics were first written by my friend Robert Priest, but I mixed and twisted them around to fit what I truly felt I needed to say on a personal level. We had always talked about it being a breakup song, but ironically it’s not; it’s about being a bit off and then on and then off again.
“I’ve always been a big fan of Los Lobos and The Mavericks and that Tex-Mex feel — it’s so evocative, so restless — and I wanted this song to be live in a room, like a kitchen party. I love that sound — the sound of realness, flawless in all its imperfections. ‘Love Enough’ has that feel because that’s how it was recorded: we all sat really close to one another and gave it our all, live off the floor, two acoustic guitars, and upright bass and congas. It’s authentic and real.” — Julian Taylor
Photo credit: Lisa MacIntosh
BGS WRAPS: The Mavericks, “Santa Does”
Artist: The Mavericks
Song: “Santa Does”
Album: Hey! Merry Christmas!
In Their Words: “‘Santa Does’ came to me in a dream. I woke and scribbled it down. Dreamed the whole thing from top to bottom. It became the genesis for the whole album and spawned a whole batch of new Christmas songs. In the spirit of giving, I let my friends Raul Malo and Allan Miller have writing credit, because you know…that’s what Santa Does!” — Jerry Dale McFadden, The Mavericks
The Mavericks, ‘I Wish You Well’
Ever since I heard the Bob Dylan lyric “He not busy being born is busy dying,” from “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding),” I felt haunted by it: Which one was I doing at any given time? And is there a point in your years where you switch permanently from one to another? Is it a specific age? A moment? As I grew older, I realized there was no easy answer to this question. Timing of life and death is often completely trivial at best, falling in our laps when we least expect it, and the best we can do is keep being reborn, over and over again, until that hourglass runs out of sand — or just shatters.
The Mavericks know a thing or two about rebirth: Together since 1991, they’ve fought fiercely for their independence in a country climate often looking for conformity. Brand New Day is the first on their own label — Mono Mundo Recordings — and it proves that, nine albums in, the genre-blending quartet knows how to keep the cocoon spinning. But life can be long and cruel, and they know a thing or two about death, as well. Bandleader Raul Malo’s father passed away while they recording the LP, and “I Wish You Well,” a gorgeous meeting place between Tejano serenade and Roy Orbison croon, is the tribute to the legacy he left behind and the uncertainly ahead. “This is where the road divides,” sings Malo. His voice is unlike most in country or Americana — smooth, mournful, full of sunbaked soul. After two decades making music, old can be new again, even as we embrace the passage of time. Maybe the best way to keep busy being born is just to be a maverick.
‘Heartbreaker of the Year’
Inspiration for Whitney Rose’s sophomore set starts with the late, great Patsy Cline, whose spirit sings along on songs like “Little Piece of You,” the heartbreak jukebox ballad “The Last Party,” and swinging, swooning slow dancer “Ain’t It Wise.” The great girl groups of the '50s and '60s make an obvious imprint on the proceedings (especially on Rose's duet with producer Raul Malo on the Ronettes chestnut, “Be My Baby”) while the '70s sass of Dolly Parton comes to the fore on “Lasso” (albeit with a slightly sneering bit of guitar work from Rose’s main six-stringer, Nichol Robertson).
That bit of burlesque informs the raucous “My First Rodeo,” a high plains rider that sounds a little bit like Grease-era Olivia Newton-John fused to the soundtrack of a Dick Dastardly "drat-drat-and-double-drat" race chase. Nancy Sinatra’s sexy boots get a nod, too, on the title track, as well as the album’s best number — the flirtatious one-four-five of “The Devil Borrowed My Boots.”
Rose’s Mavericks-fortified philharmonic are workmanlike in their execution and Malo’s production is enjoyable but not evolutionary which, when all's said and sung, best describes this pleasant (but not progressive) collection of country rock songs.