THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 21, 1996 TAG: 9607210095
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Music review
SOURCE: BY ERIC FEBER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 51 lines
It was rebel country music Saturday night at the Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base main stage, featuring Miami's Mavericks and the heir apparent to Ernest Tubb, Junior Brown.
Saturday's concert was as far away from today's diluted Nashville as one could get. It featured no hunks with hats, no watered-down pop passing as country, no stadium effects, and nary a boring moment. The pleasant outdoor bayside setting on a perfect summer evening only enhanced the tasty musical fare.
What the crowd got was a satisfying evening brimming with the root sounds of country. That is, real honky-tonkin', rockabilly, tear-in-your-beer music that pushed the parameters of country music into wildly adventurous musical realms.
The evening opened with the twanging sounds of Junior Brown, the Austin-based musical daredevil of the ``guit-steel,'' the musical thingamajig he invented by crossing an electric guitar with a pedal steel.
With his cool retro-'50s threads, cowboy hat and hang-dog looks, Brown presented mainly original tunes gleaned from his newest, ``Semi-Crazy,'' and his first two critically lauded albums.
His set was enlivened by his rich, deep baritone voice and guit-steel prowess. Riding the guit-steel like a musical rodeo daredevil, Brown showed off twanging licks, metallic surf runs, blues solos and even a nod to Jimi Hendrix. Backed by his fine acoustic trio, Brown set the stage for the musical genre-bustin' sounds of the Mavericks.
Led by the supple and strong emotional tenor of Cuban-American Raul Malo, the Mavs delighted the crowd with a country-based sound that, like Dwight Yoakam and Steve Earle, sported touches of '50s rock, British invasion pop, honky-tonk twang and country crooning.
The eclectic country was ably produced by guitarist Nick Kane, bassist Robert Reynolds, drummer Paul Deakin and expert keyboardist Gary Dale McFadden. They added subtle touches when needed, roared into full-blown rockabilly power and slowed it down when Malo brought tears to everyone's eyes in several emotional ballads.
They culled tunes from their newest, ``Music for All Occasions,'' and their million-selling, ``What a Crying Shame.''
The bands recalled Roy Orbison, The Everly Brothers, Marty Robbins, Merle Haggard, Arthur Alexander and The Searchers all in one evening. ILLUSTRATION: MIKE HEFFNER/The Virginian-Pilot
Raul Malo, left, leads a song while Nick Kane accompanies on guitar
during the Mavericks' country music concert Saturday night at the
Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base. by CNB