Viva Lone Justice!
A "new to you" kind of album.
Thank you for being a subscriber to this newsletter. By way of thanks, I am releasing all three of my interviews with the surviving members of Lone Justice (Maria McKee, Ryan Hedgecock, and Marvin Etzioni) here before I make the podcast available everywhere this Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
That’s right, wake the kids and text the neighbors, we’re back and comin’ in HOT!
Now, make no mistake, this is a new Lone Justice album, but it’s not a “new” Lone Justice album. More of a “new to you” Lone Justice album because the recordings go back a few years. There has been some studio wizardry applied here, but more than one of these songs can be traced back to Maria McKee’s solo album You Gotta Sin To Be Saved.
Viva Lone Justice is their original vision for the band, with a unique blend of the band's classic sound, promising a fresh yet familiar listening experience.
PERSONAL HISTORY
It was a hot day in mid-July way back when as I was driving my maroon Chevy Chevette to work at the local pizza place. Since the car was sans air conditioning, I had the windows rolled, yes rolled, down as I was listening to the local AOR radio station. It was the usual fare, Asia, ZZ Top, Led Zeppelin, etc. but as I rolled up the windows a little and propped my left knee under the steering wheel (#iykyk) to guide the car as I fired up the required ingredient to get in the right frame of mind for pizza work.
And then something unsuspected came out of the speaker.
Now my mom was the country fan in the house and I was the rock and roll guy, my brother followed popular trends and my dad didn’t really care about music… unless it accompanied a golf game. Mom wasn’t an Urban Cowboy country fan, her love was deep and wide, from Cash to Nelson to Haggard, she liked the good stuff.
My narrow teen mind meant that there was always an unbridgeable chasm between country and rock and roll at che’ Higgons.
That gap remained wide… until I heard an unusual twang as I exhaled a plume of something wickedly illegal in Ohio in 1985.
What came out of the speaker definitely wasn’t Asia, ZZ Top or Led Zeppelin and my ears perked up. It was definitely rock and roll, but it wasn’t only rock and roll. And then an otherworldly voice came in singing with such passion and desperation, something I could relate to, “Sweet, Sweet Baby Mine, I want you ‘round me all the time.”
The goosebumps rose as I listened to something unlike anything I had ever heard before. It had a guitar hook to die for and combined everything that I loved about rock music at the time, with a subtle hint of twang that reminded me of the things my Mom had played in her car. It was crazy - how could this be?
What WAS this?!
WHO was this?!
As the DJ was quick to inform me at the songs end, it was a new band. A quartet from Los Angeles called Lone Justice and the song was “Sweet Sweet Baby (I’m Falling).”
Lone Justice was:
Maria McKee - vocals, guitar
Ryan Hedgecock - guitar
Marvin Etzioni - bass
Don Heffington - drums
I had to know more about this band Lone Justice.
The pizza joint was in the same strip mall as the local record store, Dingleberry’s (yep, that was the name). But, since I was already running late (stoners aren’t the most punctual of people), expanding my knowledge and maybe even procuring the album would have to wait until after work.
The end of my shift couldn’t come fast enough, so I took my break to run down to Dingleberry’s to see what I could find. As luck would have it, the store had a couple copies of the self-titled Lone Justice album. Noticing it was produced by Jimmy Iovine (a name I was familiar enough with), I snatched one up. I also made a note to call my girlfriend to cancel our after work hang because I knew I wanted to experience Lone Justice on my own.
At home that night, I dropped the needle on the album and was hit across the face with “East of Eden” before settling into the more subtle “After the Flood”. I soon discovered track three, “Ways to be Wicked,” was penned by none other than Tom Petty and Mike Campbell before being eviscerated by the heartbreaking “Don’t Toss Us Away.” The rambunctious “Workin’ Late” closes out side one. A wonderfully fluidly sequenced side one.
As if on cue, my mom popped her head in: “Are you listening to country music?”
”No Mom, it’s rock and roll.”
”Sounds country-ish. I like it.”
Under any other circumstances, this kind of acknowledgement would’ve prompted the needle to be immediately removed, but I decided to give her the W on this one. Besides, she certainly wasn’t wrong.
Kicking off side two is “Sweet Sweet Baby (I’m Falling)” followed by the subtle “Pass It On” to the barn barning double whammy of “Wait ‘Til We Get Home” and “Soap, Soup, and Salvation” before closing with the beautiful “You Are the Light” side two of Lone Justice is as beautifully sequenced as side one.
My love for this album was immediate and deep and remains so.
Shelter was the band’s second album and a Lone Justice album in name only. And then almost as quickly as they appeared, the band disappeared. There were some compilations and the like over the ensuing years years, but for all intents and purposes, Lone Justice, as a band, was kaput.
That is until October 25, 2024 when the band released Viva Lone Justice on Fire Records.
Long Live Lone Justice!
I won’t break down Viva Lone Justice here BECAUSE I was lucky enough to arrange, with the help of their label, three separate interviews with the surviving members of the band, Maria McKee, Ryan Hedgecock, and Marvin Etzioni.
Drummer Don Heffington passed away in 2021, but as a result of modern technology, he is an active participant on the bands first “new” release in almost 40 years.
But to be clear, this is NOT a reunion. It’s a gathering of friends and band mates finding tracks that they felt captured the essence of what Lone Justice was meant to be. And having the desire to share it.
Geoff and I chatted with Marvin, and then I talked to Ryan, and Maria, about all things Lone Justice and how Viva Lone Justice came to be. In typical fashion, the conversation flowed easily and covered the post Lone Justice years too.
While my original intent was to edit together one interview, I felt that each is such a unique artist and thought it would be more interesting to share each conversation on its own.
It’s sort of a Rashomon type of podcast conversation.
All three could not have been more generous with their time and in sharing their unique stories with me.
I know the inclination might be to go right to the conversation with Maria, but I would strongly encourage you to start by listening to Geoff and I chatting with Marvin Etzioni. It was the first interview and he lays out all the context for Viva Lone Justice.
For the purists, the interview order was Marvin, then Ryan, and lastly Maria.
Marvin Etzioni:
Ryan Hedgecock:
Maria McKee:
Such a great band and I was fortunate to see them live back in the day.