Working through a talented community of musicians that has included Booker T Jones, Brandi Carlile and none other than Mavis Staples, eventually brought Valerie June together with her own audience. Does she have fans? You’re damn right she’s got fans. You should join ‘em!

SEASON 11, EP 6: valerie june is the goldilocks of song. be nourished!

Valerie June’s journey to what we might call ‘cult stardom’ hasn’t been easy. 

“I was cleaning houses while playing bars & clubs at night. And I had a vision that I would not make it - my music wouldn't reach its audience through regular means - it would reach its audience through musicians. My friends would help me. I’m a musician’s musician”. 

Working through a talented community of musicians that has included Booker T Jones, Brandi Carlile and none other than Mavis Staples, eventually brought Valerie June together with her own audience. For her new project, June works with Blind Boys of Alabama, Norah Jones, DJ Cavem Moetavation and M Ward, supremo guitarist and producer of new album Owls, Omens and Oracles. 

I wanted to get Valerie’s own view of her music, because the music business loves to put artists in lanes, boxes and pigeon holes. How on earth did an eclectic artist like June slip through the cracks? Her music has been described by others as an amalgam of soul, gospel, Appalachian folk, bluegrass, country, spiritual pop, african blues and my own favorite…cosmic rock. How does she describe her music in response to this assessment? With a joyful guffaw and an emphatic reaction: “I’m a singer-songwriter. I follow the songs, whatever they want to be is what I do. I’m kinda like their servant. All those names related to the music - I used to get attached to those and now I don’t . Most songs come to me as voices. I’ll try this instrument and be like “no, not that one…like Goldilocks”. I try many different instruments to connect that voice to what it wants”. 

In Jeff Tweedy’s entertaining memoir World Within a Song, the author, singer songwriter and Wilco frontman says: “Taking something old and making it sound modern is nothing new”. And yet obsessing over your references, but melding them into something that is uniquely you is one of the key themes for artists of longevity. Both concepts are critical to June’s work.

“I do commune with the ancestors. I know I’m standing on the shoulders of many who came before me. I feel them beside me as I’m talking now. I’m not doing this by myself. I wanted to understand my people through music, and I got there through studying the blues”. 

Another strong aspect to longevity finds artists channeling personal, often recurring themes. It was Mavis Staples that opened up June’s mind to the idea of making music with positive messages, something she has leaned into with Owls, Omens and Oracles. “Since Living on a High Note, I’ve been receiving songs that have more of a bright message, because I tend to wake up dark, I wake up grumpy, mean, angry, just mad. I have to work my way into it”. Having spent some time in June’s company, that is one of the most inspiring and reassuring things I’ve ever heard. 

It’s a cliche of sorts, but the power of artists in today’s difficult times might be to entertain, but also to inspire, comfort, shake-up - and help us learn to appreciate each other through a universal language. If you believe this to be true, and you probably do, then spending time with Valerie June’s music might just change your life. 

Buy Valerie June’s records on Bandcamp

Three great quotes that inspired the conversation with Valerie June:

"Valerie June has built a devoted following by ignoring expectations. She is simultaneously rural and cosmopolitan, historically minded and contemporary, idiosyncratic and fashionable, mystical and down-to-earth."

Jon Pareles, New York Times

“The marketplace will do what it will with Valerie June — she'll either be perceived as a quaint semi-novelty act and become a cult artist, or her ringing voice will excite the ears of people now trained to hear big voices by Adele, and she'll become a star. Either way, she's made an album [Pushing Against A Stone, 2013] that slices across styles and decades of popular music with a cutting canniness that will serve her well in the future, whatever it may be.”

Ken Tucker, NPR

”Every single note June sings is dusted with her distinctive Tennessee twang, but that doesn't mean she should ever be limited by genre. June holds the complexity of "My life is a country song," and "I am multidimensional, beyond category." This album is expansive, growing from her psychedelic folk, indie rock, Appalachian, bluegrass, country soul, orchestral pop, and blues root system into an intergalactic web of wisdom. Listening to her work, we are reminded that whoever created this Earth didn't stick to one genre, so why should we?”

Adrienne Marie Brown