JUSTIN McKEE
ABOUT
In addition to my less onerous work as a wayfaring artist, I've been a dishwasher, ditchdigger, doorman, dogwalker, valet, bartender, groundskeeper, signpainter, streetvendor, short-order cook, farmhand, and bellhop, to name but a dozen. I did this work because I needed to eat, but also because I wanted to understand intimately and limn singularly the picaresque variety of life. It is this motif, as well as an interest in exploring societal dissonances and disparities while advocating for the more vulnerable among us, which serves as the basis and bedrock of my artistry.
WORDS
From as far back as I can remember, I've been enchanted by the majesty of the written word, and the possibility of honing my craft to tell stories, explore ideas, and champion a more artful manner of living.
Throughout my adolescence, I was an ardent scribe of letters, stories, sketch comedy, comic strips, and song lyrics, albeit often of the incongruous variety. I penned adoring missives to various artistic heroes and choleric dispatches to captains of industry. I also tried my hand as a ghostwriter for fictitious teenage girls and submitted embarrassing stories to Seventeen for publication; I must have overshot the target, as my exploits never made it into the magazine.
Adulthood (lol) has seen my writing take the (slightly more disciplined) form of vignettes, short stories, essays, editorials, personal letters, lyrics, and a novel.
The following are some elements of my writing portfolio:
Divagations is a Substack of brown study & blue notes. Subscribe for sporadic musings.
As It Were: The Long-Lost Blue-Noted Romance Yarn by Amos Bankhead is my first novel, a forbidden love story wrapped in a crime saga inside a travelogue intimating a blues tune, released in serial format on the Substack site and soon to be published in print.
The Raffish, for which I served as co-Founder/Editor-in-Chief/General Dogsbody, was an offbeat literary journal featuring the work of prisoners, combat veterans, laborers, and others. It was published in print and online from 2017-2020, distributed internationally, and garnered praise from such disparate parties as a world-renowned author and my grandmother.
Sink or Swim is an autobiography I collaborated on with Trenton Grant. It was previously serialized in The Raffish and remains a personal favorite of mine on account of his inimitable voice, perspective, and perseverance through the tragicomedy of life.
My literary influences include (but of course are not limited to): Bill Watterson, Henry David Thoreau, John Steinbeck, John Prine, Joan Didion, Ralph Ellison, Memphis Minnie, Julio Cortázar, Albert Camus, Anaïs Nin, Robert Frost, Martha Gellhorn, and Mark Twain.
MUSIC
My musical ethos is rooted in what I heard whilst growing up on my hometown jazz radio station, KCSM: the sound and spirit of music being made in a particular moment, embracing environment, imperfections and limitations, the musicians not yet minions of their machines, playing not to package a product but for the muse...
I grew up making music with my first and best friend, neighbor, and guitar hero David Giannini; we busked our parents' dinner parties and neighborhood Happy Hour gatherings, and in bedrooms and garages we recorded ourselves on an old Tascam 4-track. These performances and demos were all highly regarded; alas, none of the tapes have survived.
As a teenager, my friends and I sang doowop and formed boy bands to croon to our crushes and serenade our sweethearts.
After high school, I began working as a singer/songwriter in San Francisco, playing cafes, night clubs, cocktail parties and art galleries, and I wrote and recorded a studio album I titled Entelechy. The experience was constructive and the resulting CD sold a few dozen copies, but ultimately I was convinced to return to a lo-fi approach to recording and performing, believing this method to more accurately reflect the intimacy of the music. Inspired by local bluesmen and an indefatigable tap-dancing virtuoso at the Powell Street cable car turnaround, I began busking and playing guerrilla gigs, and primarily recorded live and in my makeshift bedroom studio. I also wrote and recorded for various Bay Area artists, and was half of the short-lived but seminal Punk Crunk duo ZOO.
Years of wayward troubadouring followed, with stints in New Orleans, Buenos Aires, Rome, and New York City, during which I employed primitive tools to record spontaneous performances. Some of these recordings are available somewhere and worth listening to but most are not.
Among my musical inspirations are Mary Lou Williams, Robert Johnson, Lead Belly, Billie Holiday, Allen Toussaint, Nat King Cole, Lightnin' Hopkins, Hank Willliams, Astor Piazzolla, Johnny Cash, Tupac Shakur, Elliott Smith, and Amy Winehouse. Some of the idioms dearest to my heart are 1930-1950s KC/NYC jazz, Mississippi Delta blues, New Orleans Second Line/Brass Band music, and Argentine Tango.
My recorded music is available for purchase here, and can also be streamed on all the major platforms; additional content (ew) can be found on my personal Youtube channel. Live performances may or may not be announced here. For private bookings, please drop a line in the Contact section.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My photographs nod to Henri Cartier-Bresson, Sergio Larrain, Robert Capo, Gerda Taro, and Ernest Cole, among others. Please contact for prints and gallery showings.
