Carra Stasney started poking the folks at The Maverick nearly a year ago about landing a gig at the historic country night club.
You know what they say about the squeaky wheel getting the grease?
On Sunday, Feb. 20, Stasney — aka Mamma Coal — and her band will headline the east-side club.
“If we can fill it up and make a great show, this will be kind of a stamp of approval,” said the mother of two who has been performing 20 years, the last two in Tucson. “That’s why it’s important.”
The Detroit native and four-year Tucson transplant by way of Portland, Oregon, has played throughout Tucson since she started gigging again in 2020. She’s been on the stage at Hotel Congress, Monterey Court, Gaslight Theatre and Whiskey Roads, everywhere but the crown jewel — the storied Maverick with its wooden dance floor and reputation as the place to go for live music and dancing.
“This is a way to connect to the dance community. I haven’t had that opportunity that much,” Stasney said. “The western dancers want to dance on a hard wood floor. And it’s a legendary venue. I’m a country musician. I should be playing the country venues.”
Stasney started her music career in her native Detroit, playing honky-tonk classic country with a couple of bands. When she moved to Portland, she was in a band called Copper & Coal — her partner had red hair and she had black, hence her nickname Mamma Coal, she said.
After a dozen years in Oregon, she and her husband, with a young son and newborn daughter in tow, moved four years ago to Tucson after he landed an engineering job.
Stasney put her career on hold to focus on her young family, but two years ago, she refocused on her music.
She has released four albums, including two solo records, and “I’m sitting on like 20 songs right now so I’m excited to release something soon,” she said.
On Sunday, Stasney will share the stage with several longtime Tucson musicians including guitarist and multiinstrumentalist Alvin Blaine, who has played with everyone from Heather Hardy to Peter McLaughlin as well as a number of national artists including Rex Allen Jr. and Lacey J. Dalton; and jazz drummer Arthur Vint, who spent years working in New York’s legendary jazz clubs before returning to Tucson to run entertainment at Hotel Congress’s new Century Room jazz club.
In addition to her original songs, Stasney, who describes her music as neotraditional country with a contemporary twist, will play hits from some of country music’s legendary female artists including Reba McEntire, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Loretta Lynn, as well as hits from contemporary artists including Kacey Musgraves, Little Big Town, Carly Pearce and Ashley McBryde.
Aside from one or two national touring artists, Stasney is the first female headliner at The Maverick since Marnie Chastain and her band played a show in 2011.
