Peddlin Dreams

Maria McKee | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 19, 2005)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Eleven Thirty
• ASIN: B0007XBMBQ
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #207,399 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Singer-songwriter Maria McKee takes a more organic approach on her sixth album. Most tracks start with the faint strum of an acoustic guitar or the tinkling of a piano, before gradually building to a restrained but emotionally charged crescendo. McKee revels in this less-is-more musical environment. Her multioctave voice moans, hovers, whispers, and occasionally soars with a cool confidence. From the yearning folk augmented with subtle, tender strings of "Appalachian Boy," to "Sullen Soul," a powerful riff-driven ballad, to the stylized, Patsy Cline-influenced country-pop of "You Don't Know How Glad I Am," she floats and weaves with edgy grace. The aching, soulful "Turn Away" is a riveting example of McKee at her finest, clawing her way into the heart of a song.

Some melodies don't resonate on first listen but gradually take hold, and are aided immensely by the spare, generally acoustic instrumentation. When McKee kicks into a gritty, strangulated Neil Young guitar on "Everybody's Got a Story" before shifting into his "Barstool Blues" (the album's only cover) the effect is galvanizing. Always a dramatic singer, McKee's heart is obviously in this rootsy, often austere music, and her passionate performances on Peddlin' Dreams resonate with tenderness and intensity. --Hal Horowitz

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Maria's Voice Still Soars, May 22, 2005

By 

Dina Douglass (West Hollywood, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Peddlin Dreams (Audio CD)

I just got home from seeing Maria play at The Roxy, and I have to say that her voice remains one of the most astonishing voices on the planet. It is just crystal, and the emotion she puts into her performances -- and her songwriting -- is something that few of today's performers seem to be able to muster.

Having watched and listened to Maria for 20 -- TWENTY! -- years now, I can say that she continues to dazzle. I don't know how she never became one of the world's top artists. But those of us who are lucky enough to pay attention know where talent lies. And it lies in the heart of Maria McKee.

Buy her albums. All of them.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Lovely Songs, May 29, 2005

By 

James Baker (Highland, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Peddlin Dreams (Audio CD)

Although I am an admirer of the fact that Maria Mckee has the ability to consistently shift genres (seemingly) effortlessly from album to album, I was very pleased to discover that this album has more than a little common - in feeling - with my favorite of her recordings, Life is Sweet. Alas, the Bowie flavored guitar is gone but the tone set by the quieter tracks on that 96 album is very much accounted for. "My One True Love", "People in the Way", and "Everyone's Got a Story" are my favorites among the acoustic based gems on this strongly song oriented work. I love the fact that all of these songs have such memorable hooks, but some don't reveal themselves until a second or third listen. And don't let the title fool you, but "Sullen Soul" is the most soaringly majestic track on the record, one that just begs to be heard from a car radio on a cool summer night. So if you're on this page already take the plunge and buy the album. I know you're curious.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still Underappreciated After All These Years, April 21, 2005

By 

Erik North (San Gabriel, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Peddlin Dreams (Audio CD)

Few singers in the last thirty-plus years have ever shown as much raw talent as Maria McKee. Fewer still have ever been so underrated by music buyers and grossly underappreciated by radio programmers as her either. Because her music tends to cover many different spectrums, from orchestral pop-rock to alternative to country, Maria, like Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris before her, just can't be pigeonholed by strict radio formats or playlists, and that's why it is so often best to find her music, whether it's her solo albums or the ones she made while the lead singer of Lone Justice, in the record stores rather than on the radio. And that trend continues with her new album PEDDLIN' DREAMS.

In contrast to the orchestral pop-rock of her 2003 album HIGH DIVE, PEDDLIN' DREAMS has a more organic sound to it, harking back to the acoustic country/folk/rock style that Maria seems to be most at ease with. She and her husband and producer Jim Akin use plenty of acoustic guitars for the album's sound base, particularly on "Season Of The Fair" and "My One True Love"; and the use of steel guitar is a bit more extensive than you'll find on most Nashville-produced albums these days. Maria, who is 40 years old now but still looks far younger than that, is in fine voice on all the tracks. Her cover of Neil Young's "Barstool Blues" is a minor gem too, as is the old-school "You Don't Know How Glad I Am", which, like her 1993 album track "Only Once", is redolent of Patsy Cline and late 60s/early 70s-era Linda Ronstadt in its country-pop styling.

Twenty years after she first burst upon the scene with Lone Justice, Maria is still underappreciated by the general public. Whether PEDDLIN' DREAMS changes that now is uncertain. But discriminating music fans would do well to get this recording just for the sheer pleasure of listening to one of the finest female singers to have come down the pike since Linda and Emmylou. Simply put, Maria is an artist always well worth supporting.