Irish Release 8th September on Cooking Vinyl
Friday 8th September sees the release of Maria McKee’s first ever live acoustic solo album, simply entitled, “Maria McKee Live Acoustic”.

”Marie Mckee Live Acoustic” came about after Maria toured with a full band in support of her last critically acclaimed studio release, "Peddlin' Dreams", during the summer of 2005. She had begun making plans to go back into the studio to record another album when she received an offer to play at the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow. Rather than repeat the same set, she decided to mix it up and go it alone. With old friend and colleague Susan Otten in tow, she embarked upon an acoustic tour of Western Europe and a few select cities in the U.S.

Sharing all tour duties between the two of them, the ladies devised a list of songs which would include the best of "Lone Justice" and Maria's solo work, as well as some choice covers, including a busking rendition of "In The Long Run", the Stuart Phillips penned anthem sung by girl group The Carrie Nations in Russ Meyer's cult classic B-Film "Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls". Fans of the band Love will also be surprised to hear Maria sing several of her late brother Bryan Maclean's (Co-Founder of Seminal 60's L.A. band LOVE) compositions, including a reverential version of "Orange Skies" and "Blessed Salvation".

Full track listing as follows :

1. This World Is Not My Home
2. Peddlin' Dreams
3. Shelter
4. High Dive
5. Orange Skies
6. Breathe
7. In The Long Run
8. Don’t Toss Us Away
9. Belfry
10. A Good Heart
11. Sullen Soul
12. Blessed Salvation
13. Has He Got A Friend For Me
14. Backstreets

For those of you who miss Maria’s rare and intimate performances, this CD is a must. Like a UFO, one never knows when another close encounter with this enigmatic and stellar talent may occur.

Irish Tour Dates:

SUN June 26th BELFAST, SPRING & AIRBRAKE

MON June 27th GALWAY, CUBA

WED June 29th DUBLIN, WHELANS

Maria McKee is set to release her sixth solo album “Peddlin’ Dreams” in June 2005. Produced by her bassist, frequent co-writer, and husband Jim Akin, the 12-song album finds the former Lone Justice frontwoman applying what USA Today called “one of the strongest and most versatile voices in pop music” to an engaging variety of American music, from soulful hard charging roots-rock, to country tinged acoustic folk.

“Peddlin’ Dreams” arrives two years after Maria’s critically acclaimed “High Dive”, a meticulously produced and finely polished album that Mojo magazine’s four-star review called “an organic, risk-taking record oozing rich details”. In contrast, “Peddlin’ Dreams” emphasizes emotion over seamless craftsmanship; the production quality is as strong as ever, but its intention is to invest a live quality into each track. On "My One True Love" she whispers her vocal, as if standing inches away from the listener in some quiet room of the heart, while 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 album’s opening song “Season Of The Fair” features Maria’s poignantly singing of lost love over a strumming acoustic guitar. “It's probably been more than twenty years since I wrote this song,” says the songwriter. “I was in Ireland, writing a lot with Robbie Robertson and gleaning from his storytelling style - even though he's Canadian, his songs can have a Southern Gothic mood. The imagery in ‘Season of the Fair’ comes from hanging out with him and from reading a lot of Southern writers at that same time.”

Other highlights include the plaintive "Appalachian Boy," the playful, coming-of-age-tale “The Horse Life,” and the Akin-penned, feedback-soaked “Sullen Soul,” in which Maria sings she’s “Feeling my age like cars in a body shop.”

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 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."