{"id":3129,"date":"2011-08-05T18:22:04","date_gmt":"2011-08-06T01:22:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=3129"},"modified":"2011-08-05T18:22:16","modified_gmt":"2011-08-06T01:22:16","slug":"raul-malo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/08\/raul-malo\/","title":{"rendered":"RAUL MALO"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

RAUL MALO<\/h1>\n

Keeping music alive by getting out of his comfort zone<\/strong><\/h2>\n

For the creation of Raul Malo\u2019s sonically\u00a0diverse new album, Sinners & Saints<\/em>, the crooner opted to forgo the assistance of just about everyone who had aided him in assembling his previous releases. Malo recorded much of the album at his home studio in Nashville, producing and playing most of the instruments himself. He then decamped to Bismeaux Studio in Austin, where he added contributions from artists such as the Trishas and the Texas Tornados\u2019 Augie Meyers, Shawn Sahm and Michael Guerra. Malo admits that letting go of familiar collaborators and settings made him a little nervous. \u201cI\u2019ve woken up in the middle of the night in a cold, cold sweat, because working by myself has also taken me out of my comfort zone,\u201d he says, \u201cand I think it will take the listeners out of their comfort zones as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Malo, who was born in Miami to Cuban parents, has always taken chances with his music. From his genre-blurring 1990s country band, the Mavericks, to his more pop- and Latin-oriented work in the 2000s, he has always been open to new influences and directions. The last decade was dominated by albums\u00a0of smooth cover songs, in settings that ranged from stripped-down acoustic sessions to richly orchestrated pop; he even made an album of seasonal tunes, 2007\u2019s Marshmallow World<\/em> & Other Holiday Favorites<\/em>. But last year\u2019s Lucky One<\/em> saw him take up his songwriting pen once more, and Sinners & Saints<\/em> finds him\u00a0mixing his originals with those by artists like Los Lobos\u00a0and Rodney Crowell.<\/p>\n

Malo followed the example of his childhood heroes, the Beatles, in daring to be diverse on Sinners & Saints<\/em>. Tex-Mex and Latin influences are laced throughout, but the only true communal thread among the songs is Malo\u2019s own majestic baritone. \u201cIf it comes from me, there\u2019s a reason the song is on there,\u201d explains Malo. \u201cIf there\u2019s\u00a0a little variety on this record, well, I personally think that\u2019s a good thing. I happen to love these sounds. The songs and the music come from a very different place for this album.\u201d<\/p>\n

Malo views himself not as simply another musician with a few more songs to send out into the marketplace. \u201cSince I was younger, music has turned into my life,\u201d he says. \u201cBut there are adults who haven\u2019t heard a string quartet or a jazz ensemble before, and that\u2019s really sad. My ultimate mission in life is to ensure that\u00a0music stays alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Kelly Dearmore<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RAUL MALO Keeping music alive by getting out of his comfort zone For the creation of Raul Malo\u2019s sonically\u00a0diverse new album, Sinners & Saints, the crooner opted to forgo the assistance of just about everyone who had aided him in assembling his previous releases. Malo recorded much of the album at his home studio in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[2301,1062,10156],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3129"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3129"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3132,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3129\/revisions\/3132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}