Maria McKee...

There are certain artists who are simply essential to one's musical make up. They could be the band that played your first concert (Madness), made you believe music could be more than just noise (The English Beat, The Specials). I'm thinking about those early days of youth when you'd wait with your breath held for you favorite band's next record to come out; the days when you'd just sit on the floor of your room listening to records and reading lyrics, convincing yourself that they were singing to you and only you. Well, for me Lone Justice was one of those bands. I can't even count how many times I sang (badly) at the top of my lungs "Ways to Be Wicked", louder as I got progressively more drunk. Oddly enough Lone Justice was my first introduction to country music. Since then the alt-country taste has been firmly planted on my tongue. I followed Maria Mckee's solo work closely, though truth is that Mckee lost me at some point. I thought You Gotta Sin To Be Saved was great and its predeccesor Maria Mckee was full of emotionally vibrant portraits of working class folks, travelling shows and cobwebbed boarding houses. But her ventures into more prog-rock, operatic work seemed less interesting to me. I saw her with Vic Chesnutt at Noe Valley Ministry a few years ago and she proved that she still has some of the best vocal chords around and the ability to make those early songs soar. I suppose it was just a matter of time before she returned to her more country roots. Perhaps it's a naked attempt to capture an audience that may have stopped paying attention, but her new album Peddlin' Dreams is a return to the rootsy elements that her voice seems tailored to. There's more country on this record than the high minded cinematic indulgence of High Wire or Life Is Sweet. Those records had excellent songs on them, but I found them difficult to digest as wholes. Peddlin' Dreams is full of gentle balladry and enough twang to make me pine for my Lone Justice records. Peddlin' Dreams (and all her work back through Lone Justice) can be purchased through Maria Mckee's website.

2 from Peddlin' Blue:

Bar Stool Blues. Neil Young cover.

Turn Away