The Mavericks first ever show was at Churchill’s 36 years to the day of Malo’s death.
Photo by Alejandro Menendez
Raul Malo, Miami’s hometown country music hero, died yesterday at sixty years of age. His band the Mavericks had three top-ten albums on the country music charts and a 1995 Grammy for “Best Country Performance”. Just last weekend, the Mavericks hosted a two-night tribute concert for Malo, who had been suffering from cancer, at Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium, featuring a who’s who of Americana music, including Steve Earle and Jim Lauderdale. All this fame, respect, and international success came after Malo and the rest of the Mavericks moved to Nashville in 1992, but he got his start right here in Miami.
Last March, Malo spoke to New Times about growing up in Miami, including first learning to play music with others at Rockway Middle School in Westchester. “They had a full orchestra at a public school. Can you imagine that?” he said. “In seventh grade, I was playing double bass with a symphony. That first year, we sounded like a herd of cats. By eighth grade, we sounded pretty good.”
In 1989, he started the Mavericks, whose first ever show was at Churchill’s, 36 years to the day of his death on December 8, 1989. They had all kinds of influences from country and Latin music, but Malo insisted, “The Mavericks at its core is a rock ‘n’ roll band. That’s always been our attitude, even if we throw jazz, big band, and Cuban music into our gumbo.”
This year, make your gift count –
Invest in local news that matters.
Our work is funded by readers like you who make voluntary gifts because they value our work and want to see it continue. Make a contribution today to help us reach our $30,000 goal!
A few months after that Churchill’s debut, the Mavericks played an in store show at the local Yesterday & Today Records in the summer of 1990. The store’s owner, Rich Ulloa, said his life was forever changed from that performance, “Raul was a force. I heard him sing Roy Orbison’s ‘Crying’ and I knew I was listening to a voice of the ages.” Ulloa formed a label Y&T Records, specifically to record and release a CD of the Mavericks music.
That self-titled debut led to their signing with a major label. The Mavericks moved to Nashville, and there was no looking back. They released thirteen records, including most recently 2024’s Moon & Stars, which Malo said was inspired by, “all the turmoil, the protests, COVID, the divisiveness, the angst. Instead of building a wall, I’d like to build a mirror so we can see what we’ve become. If you say the sky is blue, someone will fight you on it.”
Before the Mavericks played what ended up being their last ever Miami concert at the Arsht Center on March 15, 2024, Malo expressed his gratitude toward his hometown. “We had a lot of love and a lot of people rooting for us. We weren’t the normal thing down here. This was Gloria Estefan’s town back then, and we were doing something completely different.”
He went on in that last Miami gig to show his hometown fans he still possessed a voice for the ages. Accompanied by a horn section and an accordion, his voice fluctuated between a yodel and a croon. The band played all their hits like “There Goes My Heart” and “Dance the Night Away.” But it was during a cover of Elvis Presley’s rendition of “Blue Moon” where Raul’s voice brought the massive room to stunned silence, except for the sound of an occasional teardrop falling from eyes to the ground.
According to the New York Times, “his survivors include his mother, Norma; his wife, Betty Fernandez Malo; their three sons, Max, Vincent, and Dino; and his sister, Carol.” He also had a legion of fans.
“The Mavericks had fans everywhere,” Ulloa said in tribute. “Raul was an incredible musician, a great songwriter, and always had an eye to the future. That’s why the band kept growing into such an incredible ensemble. He was revered. This is the end of an era.”