by Allen Alberson

Created on: June 27, 2009

Maria Mckee is a singer - songwriter from Los Angeles , California. She was born In August of 1964 in Los Angeles. She is the half sister of Bryan MacLean, a guitarist for the band Love and she would perform duets with him as a teenager. She was a founding member of Lone Justice, a band that blended bluegrass country and punk rock into a fusion that was known as "cowpunk." The band formed in 1982 when Maria was only 18 years old. They were a popular live band and with the support of Linda Ronstadt they were signed to Geffen records. They released their first album titled "Lone Justice" in 1985 and joined U2 on tour. The band received much critical success for the release, but it never found an audience and sales were low.

All of the original band except for McKee left after the first album. She recruited all new players and Lone Justice became for all intents and purposes an extension of Maria. Their second album "Shelter" was released in 1986. The album was produced by Steve Van Zant of Bruce Springsteen's E Street band. In it they abandoned the cowpunk and instead went with a more traditional country rock sound. Still sales were not good and soon after release Maria left the band, which subsequently broke upand the members went their separate ways.

While Maria had so far failed to gain commercial success for her singing, she had already written a number one song by the time she was 19. The song was "A Good Heart" by Feargal Sharkey and reached number one in the United Kingdom.. In 1989 she released her first solo album titled "Maria McKee." In 1990 she recorded Show Me Heaven, which she co-wrote, for the days of Thunder soundtrack. The song went to number one in the United Kingdom but only as high as 28 on the adult contemporary charts in the US. It was her first and so far only number one single as a recording artist and is her most successful song to date. The song has since been recorded by Cheap Trick ( with maria doing backing vocals) and Laura Branigan among others.

Maria continues to garner great critical praise for her albums, but commercial success has so far eluded her. She has to date released five studio albums, all highly critically praised, and two live albums. In 1998 the Dixie Chicks recorded her song, " Am I the Only One" on their album Wide Open Spaces which was nominated for a Grammy. During her career she has contributed to many film soundtracks including Pulp Fiction and Streets of Fire,.

McKee also performed on "Sweet Relief," the benefit album for Louisiana singer songwriter Vitoria Williams, who had recently been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The compilation disc featured songs by Pearl Jam, Lou Reed, Soul Asylum and others and lead to the founding of the Sweet relief Fund to help musicians struggling with illness.

Maria is married to her bass player Jim Akin, who co-writes and co-produces her albums. In 1998 her half brother Bryan died of a heart attack after the release of an album of Christian music.

Despite having a silken voice with wonderful range Maria has never managed to find commercial success as a songwriter in the States. Still she has become a successful songwriter and session artist. She lives hometown of Los Angeles where she continues to write and record new albums under her own record label.

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