Elly Roberts reviews
The Mavericks: The Mavericks Collection
Distributed by
Spectrum Music
- Cat.no: 9833226
- Released: January 2006
- Rating: 10/10
Feast yourself on this outstanding bumper two disc set with 41 tracks from
America's best loved concert band, The Mavericks.
Since scoring a bit hit
with Dance The Night Away in 1998 (UK No.4) the band have remained
a popular and cult act around the globe. Now's your chance to get your
hands on their 'definitive' collection, released on January 23, 2006.
Starting in 1989
playing honky-tonk in Florida bars, they evolved their sound and have
remained true to their name since developing a more expansive mix of
country, Rock'n'Roll, Cuban and lounge music, bewildering the Nashville
establishment from the outset. In the process they won over quite a few pop
and rock fans.
This collection provides a superb timeline of their radio friendly crossover
appeal spanning over two and a half hours.
You get melancholy like Children (kids are a backup vocal feature) and
rippling banjo, mixed with up-lifting belters that make for serious
listening - Mr. Jones. For party moods try Excuse Me I Think I've Got A
Heartache and Hey Good Lookin'.
Then there are beautiful ballads such as This Broken Heart with its sublime
pedal steel guitar with Raul Malo's top class voice bringing real emotion to
the classic. We also get a glimpse of their early honky - tonk leanings on
There Goes My Heart and Pretend.
Western swing shuffle surfaces on The Things You Said To Me, whereas Forever
provides some classy rockabilly on Forever Blue.
Apart from some very impressive twanging lead guitar work, a main feature of
the band, the solid rhythm section is one of the best in the business - hear
From Hell To Paradise as the perfect example - with banjo and violins adding
the finishing textures to a magnificent track.
Line dancers will surely find plenty of footwork fodder on There Goes My
Heart. Mavericks fans will be delighted by the inclusion of concert covers -
Something Stupid (featuring Trisha Yearwood), Blue Moon.
Best track of the lot, and there are many to choose from, is a Roy Orbison
sound-alike I Should Have Been True. I defy anyone not to like this - it's
worth every penny.
Brilliant musicianship and a brilliant collection.
The full list of tracks on the CD are :
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2008.
