The Mavericks Cover Waylon’s “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way?”

The Mavericks are paying tribute to some of their influences with a new album of covers, The Mavericks Play the Hits (2019). One of the tracks featured in a new video is their cover of Waylon Jennings’s “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way?”

The album, which celebrates the band’s 30th anniversary, also features versions of songs like Freddy Fender’s “Before the Next Tear Drop Falls,” John Anderson’s “Swingin’,” Bruce Springsteen’s “Hungry Heart,” and Willie Nelson’s “Blue Eyes Cryin’ in the Rain.” Martina McBride joins the band on a version of “Once Upon a Time,” which was made famous by Marvin Gaye and Mary Wells.

On the Waylon Jennings song, The Mavericks ramp up the beat with the help of some horns. While it may not sound like any Hank Williams song, lead singer Raul Malo on a party bus does make a nice tribute to Waylon Jennings. Check out “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way?”

Jennings released “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way?” on his 1975 album, Dreaming My Dreams. The song went to number one on the country charts. It has been covered by a number of other artists, including Alabama, Uncle Tupelo, Jack Ingram, and Hank Williams Jr.

The Mavericks Play the Hits was released November 1, 2019.

What do you think of the new Mavericks video? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    The Reunited Mavericks: “In Time”

    The Mavericks

    The Mavericks, who split up in 2003, are back with a new CD, In Time (2013). While lead singer Raul Malo has had a successful solo career and multi-instrumentalist Robert Reynolds and other band members have had some success on their own, they still sound great together.

    I remember listening to their debut self-titled album on a cassette in my car in 1991 when “What a Crying Shame” was all over the radio, so I am glad to hear them together again, even if the listening source has changed. Now, I can listen to them on my computer, and you can too because for a limited time the album is streaming below. Check out the new In Time CD from the Mavericks and hear the various musical influences from Tex-Mex, Cuba, Hawaii, Latin rhythms, Bakersfield and more. [March 9 Update: The stream of the new album was only available for a limited time, so I have replaced the now-dead stream with the video for one of the songs from the album, “Born to Be Blue.”]

    The other members of the band include drummer Paul Deakin, keyboardist Jerry Dale McFadden and guitarist Eddie Perez. The Mavericks’ website notes that during the eight-year hiatus, the band members rarely spoke and had not even been in the same room together. When they decided to reunite for this album, the members just showed up. According to Malo, the band was back in sync in the first minute, “We started playing, and it just happened. It was that explosion of sounds! There’s this beautiful simplicity to this, because when we play together, we know each other so well.”

    Listeners seem to agree about the chemistry. The Los Angeles Times gives the CD four stars out of four, and the CD is getting a lot of other good reviews from places like Paste.

    While you enjoy the music, think on the friends you have not talked to in the last eight years. Maybe it will inspire you to pick up the phone.

    What is your favorite song on the new album? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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