With the passage of time, it's becoming increasingly clear that
Lone Justice were a great band who did their finest work in the recording studio quite some time before they put out their debut album. While the two LPs
Lone Justice released in their lifetime -- 1985's
Lone Justice and 1986's
Shelter -- were both burdened with misguided production choices and too many guest musicians at the behest of their label, Geffen Records, the 2014 release
This Is Lone Justice: The Vaught Tapes, 1983 captured them live to two-track in a no-frills demo session.
The Vaught Tapes documented the interplay between
Maria McKee's stellar voice and the band's twangy but powerful take on rock & roll with a energetic simplicity their albums did not, and four years later, Omnivore Recordings have brought out
The Western Tapes, 1983, a six-song EP that gives
Lone Justice's first demo tape a public airing for the first time. Cut in May 1983, this EP features the group's first lineup, with
McKee and guitarist/songwriter
Ryan Hedgecock joined by bassist
Dave Harrington and drummer Don Willens, and if this rhythm section boasts a bit less snap than the classic lineup with
Marvin Etzioni (who produced this session) and
Don Heffington, this band still has an energy and freshness that are absolutely winning.
Etzioni was also a more savvy producer than
Lone Justice usually had behind the controls; the sound is straightforward but full-bodied, he brought out solid performances from everyone on board, and the decision to bring in
David Mansfield to add fiddle and pedal steel on some of the tunes was inspired. And
Maria McKee's voice is still a thing of wonder all these years later, a pure country instrument that still has the force to sing thoroughly convincing rock & roll. One can't help wish some smart indie label had cut a low-budget album on this band in the manner of
the Blasters' outstanding self-titled album for Slash that would have documented their heyday before Geffen got ahold of them. But between
The Western Tapes and
This Is Lone Justice, we now have some reasonable approximation of it, and this is great fun from a band that had a lot to offer -- more than their best-known work might suggest.