Saturday 8 March 2014

The Archivist Volume 2 : Lone Justice - Shelter


Some bands achieve greatness and some bands have greatness thrust upon them and some burn so bright for just one or two albums and just implode under the pressure. I'm sure you can all name some great bands that fall into each category.

One band that I always believed should have made a huge impact was Lone Justice.

Formed in the 1980s by Ryan Hedgecock and Maria McKee, Lone Justice burst onto the music scene with lots of press attention and a hit eponymous album in 1985 that gave birth to two excellent hit singles Sweet Sweet Baby and the Tom Petty/Mike Campbell song Ways To Be Wicked.





Although the debut did have some great critical reviews at the time, it failed to shift the units. The band then broke up and left Maria McKee to find a new band to record a second album. She enlisted guitarist Shane Fontayne (who would later join Springsteen's E Street Band) and also invited an E Street Band founder, Steve Van Zandt to co produce the next album, Shelter. 


Although it sonically falls into the mid 80s production trap, ALL the songs are excellent.





And it also contains one of my favourite songs of all time, I Found Love (which you have to play VERY loud) - and this video has one of the very best female rock performances ever :)


But, poor sales again caused the band to split up for good and Maria Mckee went onto pursue a solo career and instantly had a hit single with the movie driven single Show Me Heaven





Maria has released solo albums but has not been what you might call prolific. Her albums are varied and a long way from the Lone Justice sound and template - but are all well worthy of investigation and investment.







Here's hoping Maria will decide it is time to grace us with some new music soon.


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