Record of the Month

I figured I'd do a monthly 'what I'm listening to' kind of thing. This could be viewed as a lame placeholder kind of post. And probably it is. But it's my blog! So there!    

I didn't have any new music for January. Well, I mean, I could have had I known about Lone Justice's "new" record. 

Yes. Quotations. 

Technically, Lone Justice hasn't had a new album out since 1986. Their output was limited - only two albums in quick succession. 

The band was branded as Cowpunk, which is somewhat apt. They were a ragtag collection playing rough traditional-ish music, who ended up with a slick producer and a record company mandated cover of an established artist's song. As their producer, Jimmy Iovine, was also producing Tom Petty, well, that's how they got their first single, "Ways to be Wicked". 

Still, in mid 2024, with zero fanfare (since there probably only 9.023 people alive who still know of the band) Lone Justice released Viva Lone Justice. 

The songs are not new. Most of the recordings are not new. Well none of the originating tracks are or were. 

There are a few from cassettes (!) when the band was new and very raw. These are cleaned up a bit with 21st century technology. As Maria McKee, the lead singer, did some work here and there with former band members in here solo capacity, one contributed to music on her disk You Gotta Sin to Get Saved (which is a great album, btw). 

But there was some unused music that didn't make that record. The Lone Justice members who were not part of those You Gotta Sin sessions added their parts on separately making it a band product. 

Viva starts with one of those songs, "You Possess Me".  It's sparse musically, but McKee's vocals shine, which is the point of this track. 

Then the tracks change to what I'd consider a vocally challenging would-be holler song with "Jenny Jenkins".  You'd have to love the outliers in Lone Justice's repertoire to appreciate this. 

Actually, that is true of the rest of the disk. There is no slickness of the first track or their first two disks. This is raw. Equal parts Cow and Punk. 

They band does a live version of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You".  It is fine but not superlative, like it could have been. 

With Viva Lone Justice, you get 10 "new" songs that run less than a half an hour. 

It was an interesting experience and I'm glad it is out, but I don't see many replays.