Friend of the proGram, Valerie June is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist &producer known for blending folk, blues, country, Appalachian music, gospel, soul & Americana into her own distinctive sound. She learned guitar & banjo and began performing professionally in Memphis. Her early music drew from the region’s blues & roots traditions, while her later work developed into a more eclectic mixture of acoustic folk, country, soul & psychedelic influences. Her breakthrough came with the album Pushin’ Against a Stone (2013), produced in part by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys. The album introduced her unusual voice and genre-blending style to a much wider international audience. Songs such as “You Can’t Be Told” and “The Hour” helped establish her reputation as an original roots artist. She followed it with The Order of Time (2017), which received widespread critical acclaim. The album included the songs “Astral Plane” and “Somebody to Love.” Its mixture of blues, folk, country, and soul demonstrated how difficult it was to place June neatly into a single musical category. In 2021, June released The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers, an ambitious album incorporating elements of soul, gospel, folk, and R&B. The record was produced by Jack Splash and became one of her most acclaimed works. It also earned a Grammy nomination for Best Americana Album. In 2024, the album that feels me as much as I feel it, Owls, Omens and Oracles was released and that album opened doors and windows into a new set of sonic adventures. Beyond recording, Valerie is known for her interest in poetry, spirituality, nature, gardening & traditional American music. Her songwriting frequently explores love, dreams, resilience, personal transformation & the search for meaning. She has become particularly respected for maintaining a strong individual identity rather than adhering to conventional genre boundaries.
Selected Discography
Pushin’ Against a Stone — 2013
The Order of Time — 2017
The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers — 2021
Owls, Omens, and Oracles — 2024
I had the pleasure of hanging out with Valerie ahead of her Stoughton Opera House show on September 10th and it sure feels like she is pumped up and ready to provide the people in attendance with her performing, personality and potential new tunes. We get deep into the event and we find out about her 10 minute approach to getting better at anything. We talk about the upcoming EP ‘Brighter Blue’ coming out on Concord and discuss the first single SMOKESTACK, which combines to classic tunes SMOCKSTACK LIGTNIN’ & In THE PINES into a fierce new journey. Valerie just finished upa long term tour with Ani DiFranco so we talk about the ins and outs of that, them becoming friends with Ani and an upcoming female guitarist event in her home state. This conversation with Valerie reminds me of all the good going on and how the storytelling of old is still setting up the stage for the storyteller of today and the future.
