It begins with a fanfare. With a few well-chosen notes, a mournful trumpet carries us to a far away place and proclaims that something is about to happen, calling on one’s full attention. And in every way, Sinners & Saints, the new album from Raul Malo, is worthy of that attention. 

Self-produced in his home studio and brimming with deeply personal beliefs and passions, Sinners & Saints is the most intimate, honest and complex album Malo has made in an already distinguished career. You will hear in it a lifetime’s journey, from the singer and songwriter’s youth in the Cuban neighborhoods of Miami through his years with hit country band the Mavericks to his place today as one of the most intriguing and talented artists in the Americana and World Music scenes. 

Rooted in Malo’s life-long connection to Latin music, but infused with his wide-ranging love of country, blues, jazz and vintage rock and roll, Sinners & Saints melds sonic ingenuity with emotional sincerity. His lyrics continue to mature, and his vision continues to sharpen. His musicianship, especially his ability to blend traditional Mexican instruments with his ferociously twanging guitars, is on full display. The many thousands of fans who have been on the journey with him so far will want to add this album to their collections, and for those finding out about Malo for the first time, Sinners & Saints will be an ideal introduction to his searching, eclectic and thoroughly appealing sound. 

The title track opens the record, setting the album’s tone thematically and musically. Its origins lie in one of Malo’s oldest and most significant sense memories. From his boyhood and through his years coming of age in Miami, he spent many a night in neighborhood music rooms listening to local artists perform their Zarzuelas, in which guitarists and dancers stirred up fiery improvisations in the classic flamenco style. 

“The guitar player would follow the dancer and the dancer would follow the guitar player. They’d play off each other,” Malo recalls. “And it would create this ambiance of intensity and passion that was really beautiful to watch, and it was really beautiful to be in that room when it was happening.” 

Inspired by those musicians’ improvised songs, Malo wrote “Sinners & Saints” by conjuring up those nights in his head, attacking his electric guitar with a cross between flamenco melodicism and retro surf-twang, and singing spontaneously. First impulses were shaped into verses, and verses became a song that ruminates, a bit mysteriously, on the dark side of human nature, free of the structures or baggage associated with pop or country songwriting. 

Raul Malo has seen and done a great deal in his career, but Sinners & Saints demonstrates there is much more inside him and his ever-changing spirit relishes new challenges and ideas. “This is the hardest I’ve ever worked on an album,” he says with a mixture of relief and pride. That includes the physical labor of confronting the studio alone day after day as well as the emotional courage to challenge his listeners and speak his mind. “This really is about me and my point of view. I realized that after I’d done it. It reflects really how I feel about a lot of things. That’s why this is as much of me as I’ve ever put on a record.”