The award-winning, Miami-bred outfit pushes back their “twilight years” with the help of a new, bargain-bin record.

It’s not often that an artist admits that the title of his band’s brand-new album is awful, but that’s the very word that The Mavericks’ Raul Malo uses to describe Play the Hits. “It’s so unpoetic,” he says.

But there’s a reason it’s called that. “As we travel along this life and go into truck stops, there are these bargain bins, and you see these cheaply made so-and-so-plays-the-hits albums,” Malo admits. “They sell them for $3.99. These artists are in the twilight of their careers, and it’s like, ‘Holy shit, man. That’s like us right now!’ Play the Hits is a nod to those bargain-bin records.”

Wait a second; back up. Malo thinks The Mavericks, one of the most consistently innovative bands on the American music scene—who are at this very moment commemorating their 30th anniversary—are in the “twilight of their career?”

“Well, no,” he says, slightly revising his statement, “but we’re almost there, and it’s that kind of record. If we’re not going to do it now, when the hell are we gonna do it?”

OK, that works. And longtime fans of the awardwinning, Miami-bred quartet—whose current membership includes singer/ guitarist Malo, guitarist Eddie Perez, keyboardist Jerry Dale McFadden and drummer Paul Deakin—will find nothing on Play The Hits that suggests the band is in the twilight of anything. The Mavericks’ first all-covers collection, the album includes tunes like “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way” (originally made famous by Waylon Jennings), “Don’t Be Cruel” (Elvis Presley), “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” (Willie Nelson) and a killer take on Bruce Springsteen’s “Hungry Heart.”

Malo says that the band simply felt that now was a good time to round up a bunch of favorite tunes and present them in their own Mavericks-ized way. “These are just some cool songs that we really wanted to record,” he says. “Nobody made us do this; we did this. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with doing covers. We make such a big deal about that, but Sinatra never wrote a song. Elvis never wrote a song. You just gotta take the songs and make them your own. That’s always the challenge, and the fun part as well.”

Making the songs “your own” is where it gets tricky. Nearly every artist records cover songs at some point, and The Mavericks aren’t newcomers to the idea—they’ve even reworked Springsteen. (His “All That Heaven Will Allow” is a highlight of the group’s third album, 1994’s What a Crying Shame.)

“One of the things I love about Springsteen,” Malo says, “is that not only can he write these huge, cinematic, triumphant, leaving town, born to run, let’s pack our bags and get the hell out of Dodge kinda stuff, but he can also write these beautiful, really simple little love songs that Sam Cooke could’ve sung. To me, that’s always the mark of a great writer and, of course, why Springsteen is as successful as he is and why we love him so much.”

The trick to customizing a cover, Malo explains, is to “have faith in your musicians and have a sense of detachment to the song. Forget that ‘Hungry Heart’ was this iconic song. Pretend that Springsteen just sent you this and he’s a starving songwriter, and you need to cut his demo.”

It’s the Jennings classic that Malo found the most difficult to interpret, though. “That’s forever tied to a real musical movement in the ‘70s,” he says. “It was a defining song. But when I heard that song as a kid, I didn’t know about the Outlaw movement. I knew that my dad was a Willie Nelson fan and a Waylon Jennings fan, and when that song would play, it became my song. It became the song of any kid who wanted to play guitar and sing in Nashville and do something a little different. So, to me, it’s not about the Outlaw thing; it’s a song about getting to Nashville, going through the wringer and making a name for yourself.”

If all of this talk about the old songs and the old days makes Malo seem nostalgic, then you can erase that thought from your mind right now. When asked if he enjoys listening to The Mavericks’ early work, he says, without hesitation, “Hell, no! Once it’s done, it’s done. On to the next one.”

Even the whole 30th-anniversary thing makes him shrug. “I gotta be honest,” he says. “I think out of everybody in the band, I was the most reluctant to celebrate it because I’ve never been one to look back and go, ‘Oh, man, how great are we? Look at what we’ve done.’ As a matter of fact, I go the other way. I’m focused on pushing forward. Of course, when we get together, we play some old stuff. That’s part of your legacy, part of your history. But we’re not out there to play the old stuff and collect a paycheck. I’m not the type to sit back and recount every glorious moment of my life.”

Looking toward the future “keeps the band relevant and keeps us on the ground, keeps us rolling along from gig to gig and doing the things we’re supposed to be doing and not really resting on laurels,” Malo says. “That has kept us going. Honestly, I wouldn’t do it any other way.”

This article originally appeared in the Jan/Feb 2020 issue of Relix. For more features, interviews, album reviews and more subscribe below.