- Maria McKee
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Maria McKee 
Background information Birth name Maria Luisa McKee Born August 17, 1964 Origin Los Angeles, California, United States Genres Pop rock
Alternative country
Country-rock
Rockabilly (early)Years active 1982–present Labels Geffen (1989–1996)
Viewfinder Records/Little Diva (2003–2004)
Eleven Thirty (2005)
Cooking Vinyl (2007–present)Website MariaMcKeeInfo.com Maria Luisa McKee (born August 17, 1964, Los Angeles, California) is an American singer and songwriter. She is best known for her work with Lone Justice and her 1990 UK solo chart-topping hit, "Show Me Heaven".
Contents
Music
McKee was a founding member of the cowpunk/country rock band, Lone Justice, in 1982, with whom she released two albums. Several compilations of both previously released and unreleased material and a BBC Live In Concert album have been released since their demise. Her band opened for such acts as U2.[1]
When she was 19,[2] she wrote Feargal Sharkey's 1985 UK number one hit "A Good Heart", a song she has since recorded herself and released on her album Late December. The song was originally written about her failed relationship with musician Benmont Tench. Sharkey would later go on to also cover "To Miss Someone" from her self-titled solo debut, on his third solo album "Songs From The Mardi Gras".
In 1987 she was featured in the Robbie Robertson video "Somewhere Down the Crazy River", and contributed back-up vocals to his debut solo album, which included the song. She released her first solo, self-titled album in 1989. Her song "Show Me Heaven", which appeared on the soundtrack to the film Days of Thunder, was a number one single in the United Kingdom for four weeks in 1990.[1][3] She refused to perform this song in public up until recently, when she sang it for the first time in eighteen years, at Dublin Gay Pride.[4]
Following her debut, McKee has released five studio (and two live) albums. The later three, High Dive, Peddlin' Dreams and Late December, were released independently via her own Viewfinder Records label (distributed in the UK via Cooking Vinyl).
In 1998, The Dixie Chicks recorded McKee's track "Am I the Only One (Who's Ever Felt This Way?)" and included it on their Grammy nominated album Wide Open Spaces.
Personal
McKee is the half-sister of Love guitarist Bryan MacLean, with whom she played in a duo as a teenager.[1] She attended University High School in West Los Angeles, California, and is married to her bass player Jim Akin, who co-writes and co-produces her solo albums since High Dive in 2003. In the 1990s, she spent time living in Dublin and the East Village, before settling in her native Los Angeles.
Session and guest work
In addition to writing Sharkey's hit "A Good Heart", McKee has also contributed to the Victoria Williams' tribute album Sweet Relief, on the song "Opelousas (Sweet Relief)". She has also provided backing vocals to U2's cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son" (B-side of 1992 "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" single from their Achtung Baby album), as well as to the Counting Crows' 1993 debut August and Everything After on "Sullivan Street" and "Mr. Jones". On Robin Zander's 1993 solo album she sang backing vocals for the track "Reactionary Girl." She also sang backing vocals on Robbie Robertson's debut and self-titled solo album, on the track "American Roulette". Much lesser known is her contribution of lead and co-lead vocals on two tracks on a contemporary Christian praise and worship album called "Come As You Are".[5]
She contributed "If Love Is a Red Dress (Hang Me in Rags)" to the Pulp Fiction soundtrack in 1994.[1] McKee also contributed a song "Never Be You" for the soundtrack to the Walter Hill movie Streets of Fire.
Ricky Ross, of Scottish band Deacon Blue, wrote "Real Gone Kid" about her; the song became one of the band's biggest UK Top Ten hits.[citation needed]
She recorded a duet, "Friends In Time",[6] with The Golden Horde on their eponymously titled album in 1991. She also recorded another duet, "This Road is Long," with Stuart A. Staples on his 2006 album, Leaving Songs. In addition she co-wrote the duet, titled "Promise You Anything," with Steve Earle which appeared on his 1990 album, The Hard Way.
She teamed with Dwight Yoakam for a duet on "Bury Me," from his 1986 debut, Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.
McKee contributed the lyrics and vocals to the song "No Big Bang" on the only album by The Heads, No Talking, Just Head, also playing guitar and synthesizer on the song together with the band, mostly ex-members of Talking Heads.
Discography
Main article: Maria McKee discographyReferences
- ^ a b c d Strong, Martin C. (2000). The Great Rock Discography (5th ed.). Edinburgh: Mojo Books. pp. 627–628. ISBN 1-84195-017-3.
- ^ As stated by Maria before playing the song on Live - Acoustic Tour 2006
- ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 339. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
- ^ Dublin Gay Pride
- ^ http://www.crossrhythms.co.uk/products/Maranatha_The_New_Jesus_Music/Come_As_You_Are/7641/
- ^ "The Golden Horde - Friends in Time video". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzCWjXomrhc. Retrieved September 13, 2011.
External links
Categories:- 1964 births
- Living people
- American singer-songwriters
- American female singers
- American country singers
- People from Los Angeles, California
- University High School (Los Angeles, California) alumni
- Cowpunk
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