MARIA MCKEE
Live: Acoustic Tour 2006
Cooking Vinyl Records 2007
www.mariamckee.com

What’s the 4-1-1?
The former lead singer for the roots rockers Lone Justice invites listeners to an intimate night of live acoustic music. Her friend Susan Otten accompanies her vocally on a few songs.

Genre
Vocal / Acoustic / Roots Rock / Singer-Songwriter

The Good
Maria McKee uses the acoustic guitar, the piano, and her voice to bring her songs once more to life and shine ever so brightly. The material chosen for the album highlights her career to date ranging from Lone Justice tracks to her own magnificent solo recordings and even throws in some amazingly great cover choices. I’ve loved the song “This World Is Not My Home” since hearing it on the Lone Justice compilation This World Is Not My Home. It opens the album and even in the more sedate acoustic version, McKee’s voice elevates the song to great heights. The decision to perform acoustically only highlights the performance. It’s hard to hide imperfections when there is a lack of sonic noise around you. She’s a riveting voice to listen to as she performs.

Her work on the song “Breathe” gave me chills. The stage patter between songs was pretty good as she gave a couple of brief ideas of what to expect on her next studio albums. She had a couple of funny moments as well, including the story behind the song “A Good Heart”, which also seemed to served as a bit of a bitter point in her memories. One of the best ways to measure the greatness of a performer is seeing how they take other artists songs. If they can take them and make them their own, that’s a master at work.

McKee does a great job on Bruce Springsteen’s “Backstreets” and the unlisted cover of Neil Young’s “Barstool Blues”. She even did a cover of “In The Long Run” from the movie Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls, which featured McKee really kicking butt on the guitar. It was just a really fast paced romp. The album is basically one high point after another. The very highest peaks include “Breathe”, “Don’t Toss Us Away” and “Has He Got A Friend For Me.”

The Bad
The one thing I didn’t like has nothing to do with the music. The information about where and when this show was recorded is not included in the liner notes. It may actually be unimportant in the grand scheme of things, but call me a completists, I’d like to know.

The Verdict
This is more than some run of the mill live album. This CD strips away any artifice and reveals Maria McKee as simply one of the finest singers in the world. It’s a cliché to say but she could sing the phone book and I’d want to listen. She knows how to whip her voice to the highest levels and then is equally adept at restraining her powerful instrument to evoke a more emotional tone.

Her self-titled debut album stands out as one of my rare perfect albums. I even went so far as to own the work on three different formats. Live Acoustic Tour 2006 is about as close to perfection I’ve heard in a long time. I would kill to see a DVD of this performance. I cannot recommend this CD and Maria McKee herself highly enough. I’ll say it again; she is one of the greatest singers in the world, period. You can take any other singer, male or female, and match them up against McKee and she’ll win every time.

Did You Know?
Three of the song selections for the 15 song disc (“Orange Skies”, “Don’t Toss Us Away”, and “Blessed Salvation”) were written by Maria McKee’s late brother, Love guitarist Bryan Maclean. The Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines considers Maria McKee one of her favorite singers.

Rating: out of 5

-- Jay Roberts