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 "Damn
the words. Said too much again. You'd think I would have learned
by now."
-- Maria McKee, "Turn Away"
The truth is, Maria McKee is only beginning to tap into what
she has to say. On Peddlin' Dreams (Eleven Thirty Records),
her sixth solo album, she draws not only from her own songs
but also from those of her bassist, producer, frequent co-writer,
and husband, Jim Akin. Their distinctive styles, brought into
focus by an approach to recording unlike any that McKee had
followed before, make Peddlin' Dreams one of her most
urgent and eloquent works.
That, of course, is saying a lot. From her early performances
at sixteen, singing with her brother, Bryan MacLean of the epochal
group Love, through her run with Americana pioneers Lone Justice
and on to the career she has established on her own, McKee has
maintained an uncommon honesty and excellence as a writer and
singer, as those who have written with her (Steve Earle), recorded
her material (The Dixie Chicks), or added her songs to high-profile
film soundtracks (Pulp Fiction) can attest.
Her last studio album, High Dive (2002), epitomizes
her work up to that point: Meticulously produced, finely polished,
it fit McKee's pattern of spending as much time as necessary
to come up with an album that met the high standards she sets
for herself. Fans learned to be patient, knowing that the payoff
would be worth the wait. It always was, especially High
Dive, which earned vast praise. Mojo magazine,
in a four-star review, called the album "an organic, risk-taking
record oozing rich details," while USA Today declared
that Maria "has one of the strongest and most versatile voices
in pop music." In addition to dates in the U.S., Maria toured
across the U.K. and Europe on a 10-country tour in support of
the album.
Peddlin' Dreams is a departure, conceived with the
same self-imposed expectations yet reflective of her evolving
ambitions. On this project, McKee and Akin emphasize emotion
over seamless craftsmanship; the production quality is as strong
as ever, but its intention is to invest each track with a live
feel. On "My One True Love" she whispers her vocal, as if standing
inches away from the listener in some quiet room of the heart;
on "Everyone's Got a Story" she's fronting her band in a raucous
jam, ripping licks on her guitar over a thrashing beat. The
other songs settle between these extremes, each with its own
balance of intimacy and abandon -- and all of it feels totally
alive.
"The truth is, High Dive was a labor of love," Maria
explains. "It was also incredibly demanding -- a lot of hard
work for both Jim and me. We wanted to make Peddlin' Dreams'
more direct and spontaneous. We didn't think about it too much;
we just went in and did it. The process was much more natural."
More than that: Their approach on Peddlin' Dreams signals
a shift in Maria's thoughts about recording, her relationship
with the public, and deeper issues as well. "In the past I haven't
been the most prolific artist," she admits. "It's taken me as
much as six years to go from one album to the next. I've had
to sit with songs and ideas a long time until I've felt satisfied
with them. I want to make better use of my talent now. If I'm
honest with my songs, I can put albums out more frequently;
that's become important to me because of how incredible my fans
have been and how important it is for me to connect with them
as often as I can."
Her first step was to surrender the reins of production. She
had her reasons: to concentrate more fully on performance, to
expedite the process. Most crucial, though, is her respect for
Jim's insight and skills. "High Dive was very collaborative,"
Jim says. We shared production credit. This time, she said,
'Go ahead. You make it.' She came into the studio to sing and
play her parts. I'd hear the chord progression, the lyrics,
or maybe just the melodies -- the skeleton of the song -- and
then flesh it out. It was effortless, immediate, a production
based on intuition."
Jim's expanded role made it easier for Maria to find the heart
of each song. "With this album, I wanted a more open, almost
stark recording," he explains. "It's all about emotion in the
vocal. Where the voice cracks and reveals something that's almost
beyond what the artist intends."
Sessions began with Jim and the drummer, Tom Dunne, who drove
out to a warehouse in Costa Mesa. There, they cut the drum tracks,
without a click or even any demos for reference. "Tom was just
playing to the music in his head," Jim says. We'd do three,
four, or five complete takes, and I'd choose the best one. The
idea was to go for a John Bonham sound -- very open, big, and
natural, with minimal, mainly distant miking. I was very happy
with what we got."
These tracks were the foundation for Maria and the musicians
as they cut the songs that featured the full band. Everything
fed off the drums; you can hear it in "Everyone's Got a Story",
"Sullen Soul", and "Peddlin' Dreams", where Dunne's sound, raw
and punchy, defines the live feel. Each of these performances,
like the ones cut solo or with a scaled-down lineup, were captured
at Maria's and Jim's home studio, which they'd completed just
in time for the High Dive sessions a little more than
two years ago.
This, too, served the goal of going for the emotional gold.
"Jim loves having a home studio because he can capture me in
different moods," Maria says. "I'm sort of mercurial, so he'll
observe and say, 'Hmm, Maria would really handle this song especially
well right now."
Clearly Maria had her reflective, introspective days, as reflected
on the plaintive "Appalachian Boy" and the wistful "My One True
Love". Other times she must have been feeling playful ("The
Horse Life"). And her gritty, snarling guitar solo on the jam
that ends "Everyone's Got a Story" just might have come from
what she describes as "a melancholy frame of mind."
Maria also turns in a moving rendition of Neil Young's "Barstool
Blues". "After going over the Americana terrain for years and
years, the worst thing anybody can say to me about my music
would be, 'Oh, it's like American barroom rock!'" She continues,
"So it's ironic for me to do 'Barstool Blues', which is the
greatest song ever written with that sort of imagery yet it
totally transcends any genre because it's such a great piece
of art. To Jim and me, Neil Young is a god -- but I have to
do something risky on every album, and for me that meant recording
this song because his original version is perfect."
The point is that every moment of Peddlin' Dreams is
real. Every note reflects the new immediacy in her music. In
its details and taken as a whole, Peddlin' Dreams is
a message to McKee devotees: Expect more exceptional work, covering
more bases, more often from this extraordinary artist. For all
that she's achieved, Peddlin' Dreams points the way
toward greater things just over the horizon.
"Who knows how the next record will sound?" says Maria. "I certainly
don't. I just know that I'm staying in the moment now. And I
believe that's going to bring everyone who's enjoyed my music
-- the Lone Justice people, the High Dive people, and
everyone else -- together like nothing I've ever done before."
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