Kevin Robinson Artwork, Layout Design
Tom Dunne Percussion, Drums
Jim Akin Bass (Electric), Vocals (Background), Engineer, Producer, Keyboards, Guitar (Electric), Bass (Upright), Lap Steel Guitar, Photography, Mixing, Art Direction, Mastering
Sean McMacken Mastering
Jerry Andrews Guitar (Acoustic), Vocals (Background), Guitar (Electric)
Maria McKee Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Vocals, Piano
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Peddlin' Dreams is Maria McKee's fifth studio outing since 1989. Since leaving Lone Justice in 1988, she has consistently frustrated her fans' expectations, not only for her infrequent recordings, but also for her restless muse that has taken her from pop (Maria McKee) to roots Americana and R&B (You Gotta Sin to Get Saved), squalling art rock (Life Is Sweet) and textured neo- psychedelia (High Dive). There was a live album issued in 2004 as well, but for the most part, McKee has stubbornly followed her own path for the past 16 years. While her label touts Peddlin' Dreams as a return to rootsy American rock and folk styles, and as the album that logistically follows You Gotta Sin. Simply put; this isn't true. This is not a look back but a further look in. It's true that acoustic guitars permeate this mix by producer, engineer and multi-instrumentalist Jim Akin, and the songs walk the folk-rock border, but they are the frame for the rich, labyrinthine, multidimensional songs here. McKee wrote or co-wrote nine of the album's 12 tracks. Using folk, country and rock backdrops, McKee's songs offer stories of the broken, the lost, the wider-eyed and the hopeless. There's the confessional longing of the protagonist in "Season of the Fair" where memory, evoked by emptiness and rejection, wraps itself in the warm embrace of strummed, unplugged six-strings and lets itself fall framed by an organ, a lone electric guitar punching through the refrain, and the singer's voice, trying hard to hold what is not only fleeting but weighted in unrelenting pain. The loose, slippery country-rock of "Sullen Sou," alternates between the balance of guitars and just behind the beat drums as the singer lets the depth of her emotion flow in images from her mouth like raw honey. The cover of Neil Young's "Barstool Blues," is faithful, shambolic, and drunken. But McKee's delivery carries an emotional weight that Young's never did. This isn't reverie; it's misery. "The Horse Life" is a waltz, layered in staggered guitars and pedal steels, where yearning and fantasy crisscross with fleeting hope, and shimmering poetry with poignancy and elegance. Peddlin' Dreams is a melancholy record to be sure, but it's moving, utterly beautiful and carefully, artfully wrought. It is the work of a masterful songwriter whose senses of time, place and character are impeccable. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
Influences
The Byrds, Bob Dylan, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Gram Parsons, Dusty Springfield, Neil Young
Sounds Like
Country-Rock, Roots Rock, Alternative Pop/Rock, College Rock, Americana, Rock & Roll, Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, Alternative Country-Rock
Maria McKee born 1964
A solo artist, Maria was a founding member of the cowpunk/countryrock band Lone Justice, in 1982, with whom she released two albums.
Lone Justice (1985)
Shelter (1986)
BBC Radio 1 Live in Concert (1993)
This World Is Not My Home (1998)
She started releasing solo albums in 1989,
Maria McKee (1989)
***Her song "Show Me Heaven" was a number one single in the United Kingdom for four weeks in 1990.
You Gotta Sin to Get Saved (1993)
***Notably she sang, "If Love Is a Red Dress (Hang Me in Rags)" on the soundtrack of Pulp Fiction. (1994)
Life Is Sweet (1996)
Ultimate Collection (2000)
High Dive (2003)
Live in Hamburg (2004)
Peddlin' Dreams (2005)
She is the half-sister of Love guitarist Bryan MacLean, with whom she played in a duo as a teenager. She wrote Fergal Sharkey's UK number one 'A Good Heart' and in the early nineties lived in Dublin.
Hi Maria, hope you're all well... I know it's been awfully quiet around me the last couple of months, but I've got this new thing - a brand new "musical house" that I've built - called 'Horse Latitudes'.
I'd love if you had some time to check it out. One song is up and running and there's more to come.
Cult With No Name - cited by legendary UK journalist Mick Mercer as his discovery of the year - proudly present their brand new 14 track album, 'Careful What You Wish For'. Featuring Blaine Reininger from Tuxedomoon and a stunning piano version of The Stranglers' classic 'Golden Brown', the album can be previewed and ordered from the usual online sources (such as amazon.com), or directly from the label at...
Hey Maria McKee, I just bought you for $560. <br/><a href='http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=361263053&source=ni_comment._link...._newCash._v1......'>Click here to find out what you can do with all your new cash!</a><br/><br/><a href='http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=361263053&source=ni_appended_img1...._random.._v1......'><img src='http://cdn1.slicezero.com/oyf_prod/images/ffs_money1_myspace.gif' border='0' /></a><br/>
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Hi, just wanna tell you I've got 2 live gigs in NYC coming up in april. It's kind of 'The-Brave-Sessions-goes-acoustic' and it's just me, Sabine and the guitar, with some new songs (and some old).
You're very welcome!
April 20th : The Parkside Lounge April 21th : Kenny's Castaway
Hi Maria, thought I’d give some notion of what I’m doing right now.
I’ve got a exclusive My Space preview of the song ’My Heart’ rolling on my page now. It’s one of the songs featured on the forthcoming album called ’The Brave Sessions’, soon to be released on my website: martinwarn.com,.
’til then I hope you enjoy this...
Sincerely
//MW (I promise I’ll let you know when the album is released)
Hi Maria McKee, I am very proud to inform you that my Debut album is going to be released in the UK on 29th March 2008! It's called "THE BEAUTY AND THE SEA". You will be able to get it in stores, itunes and Amazon...
Also, to support it we have a UK tour coming up, the tour will include also a concert at the "PURCELL ROOM" (Qeen Elizabeth Hall) 29th April , WOMAD FESTIVAL in Charlton Park 2008. You can see all the dates on my profile.
I look forward to see you in my concert/s. Hurry Up, Seats are going quickly :)
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Hi Maria. I fell in love with your voice the first time I heard it, and thought you were adorable the first time I saw the video for Ways To Be Wicked, but when I first saw you live?!?! OH MY GOD!!! Lone Justice were opening for U2 at the Pontiac Silverdome. I was about 27 rows back from the stage, and when you came out you seemed to just be swallowed up by the enormity of the surroundings. But, as soon as you took that microphone in your tiny hand and screamed "Well should I go NORTH!?" the entire building was filled with nothing but you. It was an absolutely surreal experience. Thanks for all the memories and music through the years.
Hey Maria, I have tried to find the Lone Justice album, and can't find it anywhere, I don't have itunes, I would rather buy a whole CD, any suggestions? Everyone I knew, their album skipped on the first song, so did mine, but my ex-husband took it and sold it back in the 90's :(