You Can't Be Told - Music

Valerie June Born Valerie June Hockett In 1982 Is An American Singer Songwriter And Multi-Instrumentalist From Memphis Tennessee. She Began Recording And Performing In 2001 Initially With Her Then-Husband In The Duo Bella Sun. In Her Solo Work Her Sound Encompasses A Mixture Of Folk Blues Gospel Soul Country Appalachian And Bluegrass. If June Had Been A Roots Artist In America 80 Years Ago And She Often Sings As If She Was She Might Have Been A Principle Influence On Today's Myriad Retro Troubadours Hers A Stunningly Emotive Amalgamation Of Blues Folk Gospel Soul Appalachian And Bluegrass Including Irresistible Banjo . She Exists However Today An Artist As Modern As An IPod Shuffle A Musician For The Generation Which Carries The Entire History Of Recorded Music So Casually Inside Its Phone. Like A Potent Distillation Bubbling On A Prohibition-Era Porch Valerie June Makes Self-Styled “organic Moonshine Roots Music” Music For The Porch Parties Of Today A Party Where She Strums Her Guitar Plucks Her Banjo Opens Her Mouth And Delta-Blues-Country Stridently Sashays Out A Stunning Peal Somewhere Between Dolly Parton And Billie Holiday. Or Is It More Wanda Jackson And Shirley Goodman You Know From Shirley & Co Who Sang Shame Shame Shame So Disco Friskily In 1974? Valerie June Does This To You Reaches Inside Your Musical Brain And Shakes It Unleashing Ghosts Emotions And Memories All Fluttering Like Countless Musical Flakes Inside The Snowglobe Of Your Mind. A Self-Taught Musician Singer And Song-Writer From Small-Town Humboldt Tennessee Population 8 000 She Honed Her Astonishing Sound In The Vibrant Memphis Atmosphere Her Spectrum Of Influences The History Of Music Itself Elizabeth Cotten Leadbelly The Carter Family Whitney Houston Van Morrison Dolly Parton Roscoe Holcomb Woody Guthrie Nico Junior Kimbrough Nina Simone Bob Dylan The Beatles Nick Drake Leonard Cohen Joni Mitchell Tracey Chapman Billie Holiday The Rolling Stones Blind Lemon Jefferson Mississippi John Hurt Gillian Welch Townes Van Zandt Elmore James Skip James Blind Willie McTell Memphis Minnie... “Being From Jackson And Humboldt Tennessee I Was Raised One Hour From Memphis And Two Hours From Nashville ” Lilts Valerie June In Her Sing-Song Southern Belle Way. “It Was And Still Is Hard To Go Anywhere Without Hearing Country And Blues Music. It Always Reminds Me Of Home. It's The Place In Art Where The Colour Lines Of The South Seem To Blend.”Her Debut Album Though Is That Most Rare Of Contemporary Concepts Unique. Pushin' Against A Stone Released On Rob Da Bank's Stellar Boutique Label Sunday Best Was Mostly Recorded At The Black Key's Easy Eye Studio In Nashville. Produced By Dan Auerbach The Black Keys And Kevin Augunas Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros Florence & The Machine It's A Sonic Postcard From The Universe Where The Atoms Of History Live. “I Just Love Old Records ” She Smiles A Beautiful Woman With Old-School Dreadlocks Spiraling Out Towards Freedom. “I Like The Crackle The Gritty Sound. So Do A Lotta Other People! I Think We Just Wanna Hear Real Music. Alongside The Modern Beat-Machine Music. For A While It Was Only Moving In A New Direction And People Started Missing The Old Stuff. I Think It's Something People Long For.” The Debut Single Workin’ Woman Blues Is A Riot A Brand New Bona-Fide Blues-Pop Anthem As If Bobbie Gentry Fronted A Stax Soul-Revue Those Mesmerising Vocals Telling It How It Is “I Ain't Fit To Be No Mother I Ain't Fit To Be No Wife Yeah I Been Workin' Like A Man Y'all I've Been Working All My Life.” Elsewhere There's The Delicate Yet Rousing Triumph Of Somebody To Love Featuring The Iconic Booker T. Jones The Traditional Folk-Gospel Charm Of Trials Troubles Tribulations The Spectral Swampy Wooziness Of Pushin' Against A Stone The Specials Meets Phil Spector And The Dizzy Harmonised Shangri-La Sashay Of Wanna Be On Your Mind Valerie June's Voice Sounding Somehow Both As Old And Wise As Mother Nature And As Playfully Naïve As A Schoolgirl Skipping Home. Staggeringly She'd Never Worked With A Producer Before The Experience Opening Her Up To Infinite New Atmospheric Possibilities. “It Was Different ” She Says. “ I'd Been Holding On To A Particular Image Of What I Wanted To Be As A Folk Musician A Country Musician A Southern Roots Musician. But When I Heard The Producers' Ideas I Thought 'think Bigger'. I Looked At The Careers Of Joni Mitchell Van Morrison Joan Baez And They’ve Put Out All Kinds Of Music Over The Course Of Their Careers So Far. If I Wanna Put Out A Punk Rock Record Next Week That's Me. It's All Coming From Me. Even If I Have To Continue Juggling Jobs I Am A Career Artist.” We Don't Hear So Much These Days From The Old-School Working Class Girls The Ones Who Can't Afford The Freedom To Pursue Their Most Daring Dreams. Valerie June The Eldest Girl Of Five Kids Who'd Often Pretend To Be The Jackson Five First Learned To Sing In Church Both A Black Church And Later A White Church When Her Family Moved To The Country. People Sang In Church “even When They Couldn't Sing” And She'd Mimic Them All “from Homeless People To Wealthy People Until My Own Voice Just Started Coming Out A Mixture Of Everyone”. She Had Her First Jobs As A Teen Helping Her Dad Both A Promoter For Local Gospel Singers And In The Construction Business She'd Hang Posters In Town And Then Head To The Demolition Sites . Soon She Was Constantly Singing Writing Songs A Freedom-Seeking Spirit Who Went Travelling As A Wandering Songbird Up And Down The American West Coast Then The East Coast A Gypsy Nightingale And Holistic Craftswoman Who'd Sing For Tips In Subway Stations And Sell Her Own Handmade Soap. By The Time She Moved Back To Memphis In 2000 She Had A Plethora Of Songs Written And Finally Taught Herself Guitar And Banjo As Neighbourhood Eyes Were Raised. “Black People Aren't Supposed To Play The Banjo ” She Laughs “it's Seen As Country And Bluegrass But It's An African Instrument. I Love It.” Soon She Was Testing Out Her Tentative Musical Skills In Memphis Bars And Restaurants “which Was More Teaching Myself In Front Of People ” She Notes. “Memphis Is A Good Town For Being Born As An Artist. If You Make A Mistake People Are Like 'we Heard The Good Part'. They Nurture You. You Can Take Your Time.” With A Dream To Make A Studio Album And No Cash To Fund It “it's Hard To Think About Making A Record When You've Gotta Pay Rent” She Went To Work Full-Time Now Tunneling Her Way To Freedom Like Andy Dufresne In The Shawshank Redemption Through Daily Determined Graft. She Took On Numerous Service Jobs Housekeeper Dog-Walker Babysitter Vegetarian Meal Cooker House Sitter And Personal Assistant To The Wealthy. And That Was Just The Morning. “In The Afternoon I'd Work In A Herb Shop Maggie's Pharm. Then I Would Go Play A Gig Just Me And My Guitar.” She Began To Musically Emerge Playing The Memphis Music & Heritage Festival The International Folk Alliance Conference The Cooper-Young Festival The King Biscuit Blues Festival In Helena AR Finally Making Enough Money For Three Lo-Fi Recordings Which She Sold As CDs On Tour The Raw Acoustic The Way Of The Weeping Willow Recorded In An 1800s Farmhouse The Vocally Mesmerising Mountain Of Rose Quartz And The Haunting Valerie June And The Tennessee Express A Collaboration With Nashville Bluegrass Troupe The Old Crow Medicine Show Who've Toured With Mumford & Sons . “They're Very Successful At What They Do They Loved My Music And Said 'hey Don't Worry About Money Just Come And Record A Few Songs With Us'.” In 2009 She Was A Featured Artist On MTV's Online Series $5 Cover Following The Lives Of Memphis Musicians Attempting To Make Ends Meet And Eventually Raised $15 000 Through Crowd-Funding Website Kickstarter To Record A Debut Album Proper. Then The Universe Intervened Through Word-Of-Mouth The Manager For Producer Kevin Augunas Heard Valerie's Music Sent It To Augunas Who Loved It So Much He Flew Into Memphis The Following Day. He Asked Who She'd Like To Write With And She Suggested Dan Auerbach Whose Solo Work She'd Loved And Who Had Recently Moved To Nashville . Valerie Deliberately Had Never Signed To A Record Label Before Although There Had Been No Shortage Of Offers From Both Major And Independent US-Based Labels And Was Spotted Playing In France By Sunday Best's Label Partner Sarah Bolshi. “I Never Signed A Label Deal Because It Didn't Feel Right ” She Says. “I Need To Be With People Who Not Only Like This Record But My Stripped Down Stuff Too. People Will Tell You 'you Can Do Whatever You Wanna Do With Our Label'. I Didn't Trust Anybody Telling Me That Until I Met Sarah! And It's More Me A Speciality Label.” Pushin' Against A Stone Is So-Called Because That's The Story Of Her Life - And The Story Of Her Forebears Too. “I Feel I've Spent My Life Pushing Against A Stone ” She Says. “And The Jobs I've Had Have Been Fitting For Getting A True Feel For How The Traditional Artists I Loved Came Home After A Hard Day To Sit On The Porch And Play Tunes Until Bedtime. That’s One Reason Why They Were Older Before Anybody Cared. When I First Started Playing Instruments I Thought OK I'm Probably Not Gonna Be The Next Beyonce This Is Not Gonna Happen For Me Until I'm Very Very Old. Like...Seasick Steve! Who I Love. And Then Maybe Somebody Will Come See Me Play In My Shack In Mississippi. That's Kinda How It Is For Many Artists Who Make Roots Music. So I'm Just Really Happy It's Happening Now And I'm Not Up There With My Cane.” Good Things Come To Those Who Wait And Valerie June's Time Is Now The Last Year Bringing Rave Reviews At SXSW A Collaboration With Grammy-Nominated Fugees Producer John Forte On The Hip-Hop-Blues Song Give Me Water As The Word-Of-Mouth Whisper Has Gradually Grown Into A Collective Global Holler. This September One Of Her Friends Sent Her A Facebook Message Saying She'd Seen A Video Of Her Glorious Bestival Performance. “And She Said 'you're Gonna Be A Huge Star' ” Smiles The Captivating Valerie June. “A While Ago I Would've Been Like I Dunno About Being A Huge Star. But Now I'm Like You Know What? If I Can Get A Break? I Will Take It. I Deserve It. I Have Paid My Dues! I Can't Work On Maggie's Pharm No More. If You Wanna Bring Me A Coffee Yeah I'll Let You Bring It. Because I Have Been The Person Bringing The Coffee. I Don't Need Any More Experience In That. Now Being A Queen? M'Kay! I Think I Can Use A Little Spoiling. Bring It On.” read less