May Birthdays 
I've always liked The Mavericks, but beyond occasionally catching a video while I was flipping by CMT ("What a Crying Shame") and just coming across concert footage or hearing something in a store that was recognizable them, I haven't really done any in-depth listening.
What I did remember was that there was some sparse but tasty guitar work, definitely with a nod to the past - there were a lot of those 6th chord sort of jump blues/swing/rockabilly style voicings, or the little parts like you hear in "Rocking around, the Christmas Tree" and "Jingle Bell Rock", a style which has always fascinated me - because the guitar is more like "exclamations" - well-placed, rather than the "meat" of the song.
So I caught them on AXS TV this morning. Plenty of Jag and Gretsch goodness, as well as a Danelectro Baritone, and others. The lead singer was hitting up some Duane Eddy styled things on the Gretsch, and more surfy stuff on the Jaguar, while the lead guitarist had a nice mixture of a lot of stuff, including some of that rockabilly type stuff. Nice tones, and nice delays/verbs. The mix wasn't great, but even so, it was clear there were some well-cared-for tones coming out of the amps.
They seemed to both have Blonde styled amps. I couldn't see logos (my son wanted to play video games, so I recorded it and will watch the 2nd half later). Looks like the singer may have had 2 combos (Twin Amp, Vibrolux Reverb sized) with maybe an Echoplex in between them (though could have been a verb unit, I never got a good glimpse) and the lead guitarist was playing what looked like two heads atop a cabinet. They might have been Bassman heads (they looked on the narrow side compared to the cabinet they were on, which looked 2x12 sized at least).
Besides the obvious surf/instro influence in those parts, what struck me was the Mexican influence - which should be a "no duh" kind of obvious thing. I've known for years that the whole "Andalusian Cadence" (like how Walk Don't Run starts) is very "Spanish" or "Mexican" sounding, and that whole idea appears in the Spaghetti Westerns, in an obvious attempt to make it sound "old west", where of course, Mexico had a huge influence. And of course with surf and So Cal, you're going to get a lot of hispanic influence.
I like how the Mavericks kind of take these elements and blend them - kind of surfy/twangy guitar, with Latino elements (Mariachi sounds, Accordion, forms and styles) to make a really interesting blend.
So, just some observations on this group that I keep encountering throughout the years, but who have never really broken into the "superstar" echelon in quite the same way as the other "country" artists they seem lumped together with. They've got grammys of course, but still, unless you're into that genre, not what I'd consider a "household name" (even as much as a Trace Adkins or people like that).
But if you're interested, it might be worth looking them up if you're not already into them.
Best,
Steve
