Kudos to the booking agent who had Naomi Wachira on the bill Sunday night at the Tractor Tavern with Valerie June. I was happy to finally catch Wachira live, and doubly gratified to be within earshot of June.
- Sean Jewell
- Naomi Wachira
Wachira finished her set with “African Girl,” a song she referred to as her soul anthem—something I thought was a curious thing to say about a song—but if you can imagine being so deliberate, so certain, so confident with words, then you can begin to imagine the level at which Wachira sings. With songbird-like vibrato and the ability to wrestle the breath from every note, she sang and played guitar for a mostly solo opening set (a backup singer accompanied on a couple of songs). She’s a local treasure to be certain, and was the perfect opener for Valerie June.
June is a west Tennessee (Memphis, by way of Jackson) songwriter who stumbled into singing and taught herself to play guitar and banjo. Still, it was about an hour and a half, and many banjo songs into her set, when she announced “I don’t know how to play this thing, I just make it sound how I want it to, I mean, it’s mine, right?” And she was right. June has writers tripping over themselves to compare her to everyone from Erykah Badu to Joni Mitchell (I mean, at least dig a little, she’s more like Rosetta Tharp meets Francine Reed), and people want to include the names of her recent producers when talking about the sound of her new album. But it’s clear listening to her music live that Valerie June is playing exactly and only how Valerie June can, which, luckily for us, is a virtuosic roots-country filled with ragtime and blues.