The Mavericks had Raul Malo’s voice for more than thirty years. Rolling Stone once called it “operatic, spiritual, casually elegant, and wholly captivating.” Malo died on December 8, 2025 — sixty years old, colon cancer — and the band that had built its following on live shows rather than radio charts was left with a catalog and a question about what comes next. The answer is The Music Lives On Tour, and it reaches House of Blues Houston on Friday, September 18.
About The Mavericks
Paul Deakin co-founded the band in Miami in 1989, when they were still playing punk bars. The music turned south from there — country folded into Cuban son, Tex-Mex, doo-wop, and mariachi, held together by Malo’s voice and a band that never sounded like anything Nashville was asking for. The current lineup is Deakin on drums, Eddie Perez on lead guitar, Jerry Dale McFadden on keyboards, and Robert Reynolds on bass. The Grammy-winning catalog runs eight albums in the past thirteen years alone. They kept making records and filling rooms long after country radio stopped calling.
For this tour, two vocalists step into the front-of-stage role. James Otto hit number one in 2008 with “Just Got Started Lovin’ You” and has a twenty-year friendship with the band. Emily West finished second on America’s Got Talent in 2014 and cut the duet “Blue Sky” with Keith Urban. Both sang at the band’s tribute shows at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville in December 2025, before this tour was announced. Deakin on the choice: “James Otto and Emily West are undeniable talents.” That’s the kind of shorthand that tells you what he can’t say at length.
Houston is the third stop on a four-city Texas run. The tour comes in from ACL Live at the Moody Theatre in Austin and the Majestic in Dallas, and continues the following night at Floore’s Country Store in Helotes. The Mavericks have always known how to play a Texas room. This tour, they’re carrying more weight than usual, and they know it.
House of Blues Houston
House of Blues Houston is at 1204 Caroline St in Houston, TX 77002. The 1,800-capacity room is built for a touring act of this scale — big enough to hold the crowd this band draws, close enough to the floor that the music lands the way it should. For more upcoming shows in the area, see the Houston concert calendar.
Tickets
Friday, September 18, 2026. Doors at 7:00 PM. All ages. Tickets are available via the link below.