CMT Blog: Mavericks

I suppose it was only a matter of time until Raul Malo ordered a martini from the stage during his Christmas Party tour last week at the Birchmere near Washington, D.C. I wish I’d thought of it myself, because by then the whole place had turned into a lounge – cozy and intoxicated (if only by Malo’s mellifluous voice). One woman at our table, who told us that she met the band nine years ago as a flight attendant, even carried a tray of shots on stage, which was brightly decorated with palm trees made of Christmas lights. If the Rockettes had suddenly appeared from a side door and fabulously kicked their way across the stage, it wouldn’t have surprised me at all.

Malo is on the road promoting his new album, Marshmallow World and Other Holiday Favorites, but he does offer a few non-Christmas songs in his set. When he started crooning “You’re Only Lonely,” my friend turned at me and whispered, “Is this on the Christmas album?!?” (It isn’t.) Surely, there’s no denying that the holidays can bring a twinge of sadness when you’re missing someone. And if you’ve been dumped? It’s Raul to the rescue with a solo acoustic rendition of “Crying,” the Roy Orbison standard that never fails to thrill me. The song on Marshmallow World that I keep returning to is “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” because it just sounds so … Christmas-y, I guess. The arrangement is quiet and uncluttered, which is probably the opposite of anyone’s actual experience of being home for Christmas.

There’s no telling how many times I saw Malo’s band, The Mavericks, during their heyday in the 1990s. To this day, they are one of my favorite bands, especially at outdoor festivals. When they briefly reunited in 2003, I didn’t miss any of their Nashville shows. No former bandmates accompanied him on this tour, so the energy level was perhaps a notch or two lower than what you’d find at a Mavericks concert. That’s all right, there’s no room to dance at the Birchmere anyway. But to settle into the holiday season with friends, the music from Marshmallow World blends wonderfully with that steaming cup of (spiked) hot chocolate.