Lone Justice

The Western Tapes, 1983 Lone Justice

It can be difficult to capture the live power of a band on a studio recording. Thankfully, Lone Justice (Maria McKee, Ryan Hedgecock, Marvin Etzioni, and Don Heffington) went into Suite 16 Studios in December of 1983 and laid down much of the set list they were packing Los Angeles area clubs with. Recorded direct to 2-track tape by engineer David Vaught and with no overdubs, those twelve tracks can finally be heard in their entirety as This Is Lone Justice: The Vaught Tapes, 1983. As Billboard's Chris Morris writes in his liner notes, the release "offers the best representation of the band in it's infancy-hot, full of piss and vinegar, and ready to take on the world." Nine of these twelve tracks are previously unissued, and include originals (including "Soap, Soup And Salvation", which would appear on their Geffen debut two years later) to the covers they made their own in concert (Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash's "Jackson" and "Nothing Can Stop My Loving You," written by George Jones and Roger Miller.)