POP MUSIC REVIEW : McKEE PROVES SHE CAN DO JUSTICE TO HER KIND OF ROCK

A ve Maria.

That’s the headline I had wanted to use with my 1985 Calendar article suggesting Lone Justice’s Maria McKee was the most compelling new female country and/or rock singer in years.

The headline--which was eventually discarded in favor of “When You Wish Upon a Star”--seemed appropriate on two levels.

First, it declared in unmistakable terms the potential of this extraordinary young singer who was barely out of her teens.

Also, the sheer outrageousness of applying the worshipful phrase to any pop performer poked fun at the idea that anyone could be as good as she seemed in her early shows around town--combining the intensity of Janis Joplin, the quiet soulfulness of Emmylou Harris and the down-home charm of Dolly Parton.

And sure enough, McKee--who opened a three-night stand with Lone Justice on Wednesday with an invigorating show at the Palace--has experienced problems over the last year that prove she is mortal after all.

The most obvious changes since the widely acclaimed debut album included the severing of ties with all the old members of her band and a musical shift from country-accented rock to a sometimes colorless mainstream rock stance in a generally disappointing second album

Some observers--including a Rolling Stone reviewer--simply saw the weaknesses in the second album as another example of rock’s sophomore jinx and continued to express wonderment over McKee’s abilities.

“That (the album) falls short of the debut says more about the unstudied brilliance of the first album than the few shortcomings on this one,” wrote Rolling Stone’s Jimmy Guterman.

Yet some early Lone Justice supporters see nothing less than a conspiracy at work. They point to the change in band membership and style as a sign of sinister record industry manipulation aimed at making Lone Justice more commercial. To them, Ave Maria has become Et Tu, Maria.

So, the battle lines were drawn Wednesday when Lone Justice walked on stage for the group’s most important local appearance since the release of the second album late last year.

The forces who maintain that McKee is too willing to play by the record industry rules scored a couple of quick early points when the band was introduced by a disc jockey from KLOS-FM, hardly a station that has helped make the local airwaves safe for exciting music.

Once that annoyance passed, McKee, wearing a plain white dress, began stating her case, singing with a purity and passion on “You Are the Light,” a gospel-flavored number from the first album that reminded me of why the term Ave Maria ever came to mind in the first place.

Closing her eyes and reaching out into the air with her right hand, she sang with a delicate, yet thoroughly convincing, choir-like conviction. Turning again to the first album for a rollicking, country-ish rave-up, she changed emotional gears--bouncing around the stage with the heightened, pogo-stick verve associated with Cyndi Lauper’s most frantic moments.

While the band played with crispness and force, she was virtually the whole show--a point underscored when she sat at keyboards to sing “Wheels,” a poignant expression of romantic longing that requires minimal musical support.

In that moment, she exhibited rare ability to transcend the noisy club-room atmosphere and seduce you into thinking she is singing to you alone, and singing with such absorbing intimacy and vulnerability that you focus solely on the lonely isolation of the song.

A couple of numbers later, McKee was back at the other extreme of her art: fusing her gospel and rock instincts into a fiery and original expression that was so gripping that it was hard to accept the position that a performer with this much power could be pursuing anything other than her own musical direction.

The noteworthy thing was that McKee was being so effective on a song--”Belfry”--that is vaguely focused thematically and narrowly designed melodically. When she applied the same vocal and performance intensity to a more appealing song, “I Found Love,” it was electric.

So, what has happened with McKee and Lone Justice?

The new band is a rather colorless unit that offers little of the warmth and winning sense of “community” that surrounded the original lineup. At the same time, this unit is unquestionably stronger musically. McKee now exudes the confidence of a performer who knows the musicians can follow her wherever her instincts lead.

In some ways, the preoccupation with the changes in the band and the musical shift (both of which, McKee insists, were her own choices) cloud the real challenge facing Lone Justice: material.

Where she and producer Jimmy Iovine relied heavily on others for material on the first album (including three key songs by former Lone Justice bassist Marvin Etzioni), McKee wrote or co-wrote all 10 songs on the latest album.

While the best of the new songs (including “Wheels” and the inspiring “The Gift”) were up to the quality of the material on the first album, most fell considerably short.

McKee’s talent and heart were still aglow at the Palace. The challenge facing her if she is going to fully live up to the Ave Maria potential is in writing--or finding--material to match.