Classic Rock Bottom

This week's selection is the 1985 self-titled album from Lone Justice which continues the theme that started many weeks ago. 

While certain others collude on metal, one of us went down a solitary road. Chances are these certain others will collude again in the near future and claim that they came up with a fantastic idea even though it's already been done. Even when they're shown the proof, they'll claim ignorance or that they "forgot" that it had already been done. 

The first time I heard of Lone Justice was the video for "Sweet, Sweet Baby (I'm Falling)", and I was hooked. I bought the album expecting more of the same, but found it to be much different. Sure, it rocked but there was also quite a bit of country. For some reason, it didn't bother me and still doesn't. I think it's the eyes.

Now for a (not updated) biography courtesy of wikipedia allmusic.com:

"The roots rock band Lone Justice was formed in Los Angeles by guitarist Ryan Hedgecock and singer Maria McKee. The half-sister of Bryan MacLean, a member of the seminal psychedelic outfit Love, McKee's involvement in the L.A. club scene dated back to her infancy; at the age of three, she joined MacLean at a performance at the famed Whisky-a-Go-Go and was befriended by Frank Zappa and members of the Doors. As a teen, she studied musical theater, and briefly performed in duos with MacLean and local blues singer Top Jimmy. McKee and Hedgecock first met while dabbling in the L.A. rockabilly scene, and their mutual affection for country music inspired them to found Lone Justice in 1982. Initially, the group was strictly a cover band, but the additions of veteran bassist Marvin Etzioni and Don Heffington, a former drummer in Emmylou Harris' Hot Band, prompted McKee to begin composing original material inspired by Dust Bowl-era balladry.

Gradually, elements of rock began creeping into the Lone Justice sound as well, and soon the band became a local favorite. At the urging of Linda Ronstadt, they were awarded a contract with Geffen Records; their self-titled debut appeared in 1985, followed by a tour in support of U2. Still, despite good press and media hype, Lone Justice failed to sell; slickly produced by the band's manager, Jimmy Iovine, it failed to connect with either country or rock audiences. In the record's wake, Hedgecock, Etzioni, and Heffington all exited the band, leaving McKee to lead Lone Justice alone. After enlisting guitarist Shayne Fontayne, bassist Greg Sutton, drummer Rudy Richman, and keyboardist Bruce Brody, Lone Justice recorded their second LP, Shelter. Shortly after the record's release, McKee broke up the band for good and went on to a solo career. Heffington became a successful session drummer, while Etzioni recorded under the guise Marvin the Mandolin Man. After a decade removed from the music industry, Hedgecock returned in 1996 as half of the duo Parlor James. A posthumous Lone Justice retrospective, This World Is Not My Home, followed in early 1999."

As usual, this isn't complete until there's also an allmusic.com review:

"Few new bands receive the kind of critical buzz that Lone Justice generated prior to the release of their first album in 1985, and one senses the band (not to mention producer Jimmy Iovine and Geffen Records) wanted to deliver something special to merit the hype. Which was not necessarily a good thing; Lone Justice is an album that tries so hard to be great that it sometimes ends up tripping over its own ambitions. The record leaves no doubt that the first edition of Lone Justice was a very good band; on the best cuts, Maria McKee's voice sounds like a force of nature, bassist Marvin Etzioni and drummer Don Heffington are a strong and imaginative rhythm section whether they were playing souped-up country shuffles or fifth-gear rock & roll, and if guitarist Ryan Hedgecock isn't quite a virtuoso, he's solid and inspired when he gets to step to the forefront. But guest keyboardist Benmont Tench and the other high-priced help (including Little Steven, Mike Campbell, and an uncredited Annie Lennox) often overwhelm the group's personality, and while McKee's songs celebrating the heart and soul of rural America are unquestionably sincere, they don't always ring true ("After the Flood" and "Pass It On" sound more like writing exercises than narratives centered around believable characters), and they also seem to inspire Iovine's most bombastic production decisions. Where Lone Justice succeeds is on straight-ahead rockers like "East of Eden" and "Working Late," the C&W weeper "Don't Toss Us Away," and the tough "love gone bad" number "Way to Be Wicked," all of which prove that this band really did have the goods. In the wake of the 1990s alt-country movement, in which dozens of bands mined similar musical territory with more satisfying results, Lone Justice sounds like an example of too many cooks spoiling the soup; there's enough good stuff to make it worth hearing, but its hard not to wish Lone Justice had gotten the sort of sympathetic but hands-off production that allowed Wilco and the Jayhawks to do their best work."

Lone Justice

1. East Of Eden
2. After The Flood
3. Ways To Be Wicked
4. Don't Toss Us Away
5. Working Late
6. Sweet, Sweet Baby (I'm Falling)
7. Pass It On
8. Wait 'Til We Get Home
9. Soap, Soup And Salvation
10. You Are The Light

Availability: Around $7 used, $10 new.

As an added bonus, here's the above-mentioned video. How could you watch this and NOT fall for Maria McKee?

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Interesting.

She was always kinda cute to me.  Loved Sweet Sweet Baby and remember their appearance on Saturday Night Live and then **POOF** they were gone...

Maybe you heard this off the followup album:

not sure, it seems to be kind of familiar but not sure.  Really a very nice tune though...

Well that's quite the pedigree she has!  Always thought of this band as  more Texas than SoCal...  Nonetheless, I've never heard this album but I do remember that they were marketed very heavily for a period of time.

Interesting opener, rockabilly with a pop undertone.  Her vocal style on this one at least, may wear thin after 10 tracks.  Hopefully she settles in a bit...  After The Flood, her voice is settling down and it works very well for this style of music, does feel quite a bit like country-rock but is working for me.  Ways to be Wicked settles the question of style.  This song is certainly not as interesting as the first 2, but its not bad.  Do love the keyboard work that fills in around the rest of the band on this though. Don't Toss Us Away mellows it all out and you can really her tone and details of her vocals.  I like it...  shockingly...  I think her voice is really cool and I'm not a huge female lead vocalist music fan (IMO outside of Ann Wilson there is a HUGE gap with everyone else) - couple that with my disdain of new country (which this is not) and there's what surprises me.  But this feels like smarter music than pure country, way smarter.

Then as soon as I type all of that Working Late comes on and blows it all away.  This is the first track that's feels like filler and pure country.  Oops....

Thankfully Sweet Sweet Baby takes that bad taste of the filler track out of my mouth.  What a great lost track!  Pass It On nice!  There's that keyboard again! Wait 'Til We Get Home and were three for three on side 2!  Fun tune.  Soap, Soup and Salvation has the title of another country filler, and it kind of is.  Better and far funner that Working Late though. You Are The Light, wow... beautiful!    The wife would love this too, and maybe if I bought this "for her" she would cut me some slack on my CD budget, or lack thereof....

Nice Nice post!!!!

East of Eden - Wow, not at all what I expected to start this off.  Not country in the least.  Very 90's pop sounding tune to me.  So I guess the opener was ahead of it's time.

After The Flood - Oh yeah, there's the country song.  

Ways To Be Wicked - This one is interesting.  This song was written by Petty and Campbell.  I remember reading in the Petty biography that she did not like the idea of singing this song, especially the "stick it in" part.  Petty's version sounds better.  It's on the Playback box set.

Don't Toss Us Away - Was this a single?  This sounds familiar.  Definitely country.

Working Late - This is pretty bad.  It amazes me that some folks around here like an album like this (of which it is definitely more than 50 per cent country), yet they don't like an amazing country/rock band like Blackberry Smoke or Whiskey Myers.

Sweet, Sweet Baby (I'm Falling) - More pop than country here, but because of the previous tracks, it still has a country flare to it.  And it has a surprisingly long guitar solo for this type of music.  Probably the best track yet.

Pass It On - Sounds like an attempted single.

Wait 'Til We Get Home - Pretty catchy chorus.

Soap - Hmmm.  Not particularly good.  They did give a shout out to the old Gospel tune When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder...didn't really work for me.

You Are The Light - You might be the light, but this song isn't.

So overall, not the worst thing ever, but it really is just not something that works well for me.  So, I guess, count me out as a Lone Justice fan.

Some people appreciate originality ... just sayin'...  :-)

didn't mean that in a mean way... just read it back and didn't want you to take it that way.

Nah, not at all.  Me neither.  I just brought it up because I totally dig Blackberry Smoke and nobody else here (since Gordon) likes 'em.  I've had their new album for a while but I have hesitated to profile it in NMC because of that.  

All that being said, this is country. 

Thankfully it's not modern country...

"Sweet, Sweet Baby" and "Ways To Be Wicked" were the two songs released as singles with WTBW charting higher.

I can't say that I remember this band at all, but I wasn't listening to country at all in '85.  I don't remember it on pop radio either.

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