Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 24, 1995                   TAG: 9506270038
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

COUNTRY BAND GIVES GREAT SHOW FOR SMALL CROWD

Following in the recent footsteps of Bonnie Raitt and John Prine, country band The Mavericks came to town Friday night deserving a packed-to-the-rafters reception at the Roanoke Civic Center auditorium.

Instead, only 934 people came out.

Perhaps the Mavericks with the title of the first song they played Friday night said it best: ``What a Crying Shame.''

Of course, that was probably part of the problem. How many people have ever heard of ``What a Crying Shame,'' or, for that matter, how many have heard of The Mavericks?

Apparently, not many.

That, at least, gives everyone involved a ready-made excuse, although that doesn't explain the equally dismal numbers that greeted the equally deserving Bonnie Raitt when she played Roanoke in May, and John Prine when he played Roanoke last month.

Raitt drew only 3,419 to the 11,000-seat coliseum. Prine brought in just 1,157 to the same auditorium where the Mavericks played.

Still, it all seems sort of puzzling because like the veterans Raitt and Prine, the newer Mavericks proved through a 90-minute set to be a quality act, easily much better than competing country bands like Little Texas, Diamond Rio or Sawyer Brown that are unjustly more popular.

Credit that superiority in large part to front man Raul Malo, a legitimately talented singer who proved with his show-stopping, high lonesome version of ``Blue Moon'' alone that he deserves special attention - even outside of country music.

His is a voice that echoes Roy Orbison without being derivative. And as a band, The Mavericks - rounded out by guitarist Nick Kane, bassist Robert Reynolds and drummer Paul Deakin - also echoed an earlier era without sounding like a retro act.

Clearly, the Mavericks know where their roots are planted. Unlike so many of today's country acts, they are refreshingly far from formula.

Maybe there lies the answer. Raitt and Prine, in their genres, aren't formula either.

A nice compliment to the similarly influenced Mavericks, opening act The Belmont Playboys are pretty much a Stray Cats knock-off, pure rockabilly. The Playboys are the type of band that would be great to see in a small nightclub where there is plenty of room to dance. They almost stole the show.