FROM:            MITCH SCHNEIDER/MARCEE RONDAN/LATHUM NELSON

MARIA McKEE’S

‘PEDDLIN’ DREAMS’

SET FOR APRIL 19 RELEASE

ON ELEVEN THIRTY RECORDS

MARIA McKEE will release her sixth solo album PEDDLIN’ DREAMS April 19 on Eleven Thirty Records. 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” (Elysa Gardner, 4/22/03) 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” (James McNair, 5/03). 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.”

Looking ahead, MARIA is planning special concerts to coincide with the release of PEDDLIN’ DREAMS, details TBA. This will follow her 2003 tour in support of High Dive, for which she toured the U.S. and overseas, a 10-country trek encompassing the U.K. and Europe.

For more information, visit: www.mariamckee.com.

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