Maria McKee

SINGER-songwriter Maria McKee grew up a theatre kid in Beverly Hills, the daughter of local evangelical leaders. “I went to theatre school at Beverly High,” she says. “I was in class with Nicolas Cage, doing improv with him.” Her country-rock band Lone Justice made waves on the Los Angeles punk circuit in the early ’80s, where John Doe, Jeffrey Lee Pierce and The Blasters could be seen at their gigs, before an onslaught of industry buzz ushered in heavy hitters like Linda Rondstadt and David Geffen. “Stevie Nicks started showing up and that was a little bit scary,” McKee remembers. “She would come backstage coked up, making demands on me to be the one to carry the torch.” Hyped as the next big thing upon the release of their 1985 self-titled album, the original lineup crumbled and the band dissolved a couple of years later. McKee’s extensive solo output, meanwhile, is a push-and-pull between her roots in Americana and a complex mosaic of orchestral, progressive and theatrical rock, folk and pop sounds. Aside from her run of solo albums, McKee reached No 1 in 1990 with “Show Me Heaven” from the Days Of Thunder soundtrack. After coming out as queer, McKee has now made an unexpected return with La Vita Nuova, a gorgeous and ambitious cycle that melds folk rock, orchestral and avant-pop influences with her powerful voice and lyrical poetry. ERINOSMON

LONE JUSTICE THIS IS LONE JUSTICE: THE VAUGHT TAPES, 1983

OMNIVORE, 2014

Compilation that gathers 12 songs — a mix of originals and covers — recorded at Suite 16 Studios in Van Nuys during the band’s earliest days.

We were all part of this rockabilly scene. There was a car-hop diner down in Anaheim where every month they would have a vintage car get-together. For my 18th birthday, my] Ryan Hedgecock was there and he tracked me down. He was like, “Let’s put a band together.” I had been talking to Victoria Williams, who was my neighbour and one of my best friends, about putting a band together with her. So when Lone Justice first started, it was me, Ryan and Victoria. We were listening to old records and shooting the breeze, jamming a little bit. Ryan and I started playing around acoustically, just the two of us. That’s when Marvin [] sort of ingratiated himself as our producer and started writing songs for us. Then, we found a drummer [] and started playing around. We were young and doing what we wanted, and you can hear that. We still had that punk-rock energy. We were innocent. We thought that we could do whatever we wanted and have a certain kind of success. Our goal was to kind of be like The Blasters or something. To be one of the top Los Angeles alternative bands.”