Music

Song Of The Day- April 11th

Lone Justice- “Shelter”

Artist: Lone Justice Release Date: November 1986 Record: Shelter Highest Chart Pos. (US): #47 Billboard Hot 100

Music fans love to assign labels to artists. Critics too. We endlessly sort, categorize, and tag labels to try and bring some objective sense of order to the subjective.

Dance, Rockabilly, Cowpunk- no band is immune. But sometimes groups do their level best to evade being put in a box.

Lone Justice was formed in the early ’80s by Ryan Hedgecock and vocalist Maria McKee. Initially doing covers, they rounded out their lineup and began recording their own material.

They soon became a hit on the local Los Angeles scene. Keyboardist Benmont Tench (of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers fame) would occasionally sit in with them during live shows.

After signing with Geffen, the band recorded their debut album, and hit the road, opening for no less than U2. The record was a critic's darling but didn’t fare well commercially.

For their 2nd album, McKee and Hedgecock put together a new lineup. Shelter was released in November of 1986 and saw the newly assembled group shift away from its rockabilly sound to a more polished pop styling, replete with synthesizers and drum machines.

As with their debut, the record didn’t fare too well commercially — many critics and fans alike thought they had pivoted too far from their original sound — but the title track made it to a respectable #47 on Billboard’s Hot 100.

A year later the band split for good, with McKee going on to carve out a solo career, and other members doing everything from becoming session musicians to touring with Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band.

Roots Rock…Rockabilly…CowPunk… All were labels ascribed to the work of Lone Justice. But sometimes, the most accurate descriptor is also the easiest one.

In the case of this track, “good” fits best.

Well alright, you gave it all up for a dream Fate proved unkind, to lock the door and leave no key You’re unsure, well baby I’m scared too When the world crushes you

Let me be your shelter, shelter From a storm outside Let me be your shelter, shelter From the endless night