“People are saying it’s the first new Lone Justice record in 40 years, and I’m like… is it?” says Maria McKee, the band’s firebrand vocalist. The answer is both yes and no. While the group hasn’t released a proper full-length since 1986’s Shelter, upcoming album Viva Lone Justice isn’t technically new. McKee recorded the bulk of the material with ex-bandmates Marvin Etzioni and Don Heffington as demos for her 1992 solo effort You Gotta Sin To Get Saved. Dusting off those tapes in the wake of Heffington’s passing in 2021, Etzioni encouraged McKee to turn the sessions into a new solo album. Instead, she suggested they reach out to another former bandmate, guitarist Ryan Hedgecock, to add overdubs and release it under the Lone Justice name.
Viva Lone Justice is a rollicking, eclectic ride that puts hillbilly country stomp alongside shimmery folk, barrelhouse blues and a faithfully ripping cover of The Undertones’ “Teenage Kicks”, recorded in honour of Feargal Sharkey who scored his only No 1 single in 1985 with the McKee-composed “A Good Heart”.
“I didn’t do anything,” McKee says of the finished album. “Marvin called me one day and said, ‘It’s done.’ I was completely blown away. It really has this wild energy. This is like fire.”
“This is the closest thing to what our original vision was for a Lone Justice record,” adds Hedgecock. “When we were playing at [famed Hollywood country venue] the Palomino, we’d go from a George Jones song into a Jimi Hendrix song. Nothing else that’s ever been out there has been reflective of the band.”
When Hedgecock and McKee started Lone Justice in 1982, both were becoming soured on the punk and rockabilly scenes in their native LA, finding fresh inspiration in the recordings of George Jones and Rose Maddox. “We just went further back,” says McKee. “There was no way to be subversive any more because punk was everywhere. So going back to the roots of everything was our way of being rebels.”
With McKee’s powerful voice and their rowdy live shows, Lone Justice’s star rose quickly. Before they knew it, the group was being praised by Dolly Parton and finding themselves in the studio with Bob Dylan to record his song, “Go ‘Way Little Boy”. The session was memorably contentious. “I was a brat and he was a brat,” remembers McKee. “I was fearless, and he loved me for it. I was one of the only people he liked because I hated him. He was so sick of everybody kissing his ass. He kept sending me out to sing the song over and over and over again. He was like, ‘You’re doing it all wrong.’ So finally I just did a Bob Dylan impression. When I did, he gave me this wink and said, ‘I knew you had it in you.’”
Although they toured with U2 and Tom Petty, neither of Lone Justice’s two albums were wildly successful and the band soon fell apart. That’s not to say they have been completely overlooked. The past few years have seen the release of various archival recordings and, in 2022, Lone Justice were included in an exhibit honouring the LA scene at the Country Music Hall Of Fame. “I was completely blindsided by it,” says McKee. “I went to Beverly Hills High and grew up in a very bohemian, not very Country & Western household. How are these bratty kids allowed to be part of this legacy?”
Could Viva Lone Justice be the beginning of a new chapter for this storied band? McKee pours cold water on the idea of live shows, saying, “I just don’t think it’s on the cards at the moment.” However, according to Etzioni, this may not be their final release: “I might have some other tapes that could turn into another Lone Justice album. Stay tuned to this channel.”
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