Anyone remember Maria McKee? Lead singer of Lone Justice followed by a promising solo career until the record company practically dumped her for no apparent reason. After a long break outside the public eye she returned a few years ago with a new album, High Dive, which has since become two when Peddlin' Dreams was released in 2005. Both albums have been virtually ignored by the mainstream media, so her career is far from what it was in the late Eighties, early Nineties. She tours small places and probably finances everything more or less herself.

Well, what does this have to do with Bruce Springsteen? you may ask. Apart from the fact that Little Steven produced Lone Justice, Maria has always been known to be a Springsteen fan. She was supposed to contribute a cover version of "Candy's Room" on the One Step Up tribute album a few years ago, but for some reason it didn't materialize. Instead she covered it on her High Dive tour to great effect among the few people witnessing it. And recently she released a new acoustic live album with a wonderful cover of "Backstreets" as the closer. The whole album ends with Maria exclaiming "God bless Bruce Springsteen!" Altogether, Maria McKee deserves a lot more attention than she's getting. Not just because she covers Bruce, but because she's just one of many struggling artists who makes a lot better music than 90% of what you hear on the radio and yet gets no credit for it. So whether you remember her from days of yore or never heard of her, do yourself a favor and check her out. You can find more information on www.mariamckee.com and get her new live album from Amazon.

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