On Friday night, I had the privilege of seeing Raul Malo in the Queen's Hall in Edinburgh. For those who are unaware of this great singer, he is probably best known to the general public as being the lead singer of the American Country band, the Mavericks.
The concert was billed as an intimate Evening with Raul Malo, and I wasn't sure what format the concert would take - last time I saw him in Edinburgh he was solo - just his voice and a guitar, then when I saw him in Glasgow earlier this year he was with a full band. On entering the venue, all that was on the stage was three mike stands, a guitar stand and a small table - so obviously no band.
The support act was an American singer by the name of Alyssa Bonagura. I had never heard of this singer before, but was impressed enough by her to purchase the cd that she had on sale. She performed a good set which ran for about 40 minutes - just her singing and playing the guitar. She has a a myspac page that you can check her out on.
At nine o'clock Raul Malo came on stage accompanied by Michael Guerra who played the accordion. Raul then proceeded to sing for just under two hours (he was meant to be on stqage for 90 minutes). Raul played a varied set consisting of tracks from his solo albums, cover versions of songs by the likes of Jim Reeves, Englebert Humperdinck, Roy Orbison and J D Souther, and stripped down Mavericks songs. Accompanied only by his guitar and Michael's fantastic accordion playing, Raul had the audience eating out of his hand (except for the idiot who shouted out the Raul should get back with the Mavericks - although a larger part of the audience booed the heckler).
Alyssa joined Raul onstage for part of the encore, then left again to leave the last couple of songs to Raul and Michael.
Once again this powerful vocalist blew me away with his performance (and has me thinking about going through to Glasgow to see him in January).
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