Earlier today, I listened to an album due out this Friday and then another slated for release in mid-May. Now? I’m grooving to Maria McKee’s Live in Glasgow EP, a heady four-track set that I stumbled upon a few years back.
As with other blogs, I’m sure, I’m deluged with requests to spotlight forthcoming albums, EPs and singles. Most are club-tier artists looking to jump from opening-act status to headliner—i.e. the ones barely making it. It’s always been a challenge for up-and-comers to make their bones, granted, but the modern marketplace somehow stacks the odds even further against them. There’s something of a perverse inverse curve at work: the more new songs and albums released, less are actually heard. I don’t understand the whys and wherefores, but anecdotal evidence points to the tsunami of new music that’s released every day essentially intimidating music fans.
People are overwhelmed by the many choices.
Back in the day, I should explain to those too young to have been there, it was customary for cities and towns to have scenes—neighborhood bars and clubs that local artists and bands played. Build up enough of a buzz, self-release a few 45s and perhaps an LP, (hopefully) cajole area radio stations to play them, and a label—regional or national—might come calling. One step led to the next but, even if or when an artist reached the national stage, there was no guarantee of success or even of landing a review in a music magazine. History is littered with good and great artists and bands that, for whatever reason, failed to breakthrough.
But I’m getting off track from the question at hand. The first thing that comes to mind is quite simple: A lifetime has passed since that April day in 1985 when I first heard Maria McKee. I was positive, upon that first listen of Lone Justice’s self-titled debut, that she was destined for greatness. Though commercial success mostly eluded her, I’d argue that—artistically speaking—she achieved just that. If you’ve never heard her, give her a listen.
The Old Grey Cat 