With her Tennessee twang and infectious laugh, Valerie June could charm the dew off a honeysuckle. Itâs difficult not to smile and laugh along with her, even as sheâs discussing celestial realms and conversations with spirits.
June has always been interested in the esoteric and the transcendent, but it wasnât until writing the song âAstral Plane,â from her latest album The Order of Time, that she found a way to fully express these thoughts in her lyrics. Itâs a quiet meditation on hopes, dreams, and interstellar traveling delicately sung over a lush, cosmic folk arrangement. âDancing on the astral plane/In holy water cleansing rain,â June sings. âFloating through the stratosphere/Blind, but yet you see so clear.â
âThese are the things that are on my mind, in every way, all day longâthe spiritual journey,â June tells me over the phone from her home in Brooklyn. âEvery single song on that record, I can listen to it from a place of a being talking to a spirit. I wrote it thinking, on small levels, of what we deal with here on earthâmy relationship to my lover or my relationship to my familyâbut I went back after I recorded it, and listened to it from a spirit place, and all of these songs could be a conversation with God, or with a spirit, or with something greater than you.â
Though sheâs a gifted singer and songwriter, June explains that guitar playing didnât come as easy to her, and she had to teach herself to play by what she describes as âfollowing her voice.â This method was inspired by another Black female guitar player, the late Jessie Mae Hemphill.
âNot only was she this beautiful Black woman playing electric guitar and looking like a cowgirl, but she also follows her voice when sheâs playing,â June says. âNow I play guitar, but I also play ukulele and banjo, and Iâve written some songs on keys in the last couple of years, and I donât even play keys... Iâm not going to be some virtuoso or a brilliant prodigy or anything, but what I do is what I do, and that is that I follow the voice. I can play a song on spoons or on pots and pans or anything, by following my voice.â
Juneâs voice has taken her on a long journey, from Memphis coffee shops and open mics to recording an album with the Black Keysâ Dan Auerbach (2013âs Pushinâ Against a Stone), profiles in the New Yorker, touring with Norah Jones, and being invited to the White House by former first lady Michelle Obama. But even now, after all this exposure, June says she still has to field the same questions about her music as she did when she first started performing.
âI can remember when I was busking down in Helena, Arkansas, at the Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival,â June says. âAnd people would come up to me while I was busking and theyâd be like, âWhat kind of music is that?â And Iâd say, âI donât know, what kind of music do you think it is?â And theyâd say âcountry.â And then âhillbilly.â And then âblues.â And then âgospel.â And âfolk.â Everybody had a different description. Thatâs why I created the term âorganic moonshine roots music,â because I was like, âWell, I guess theyâre all right.â You know? Nobodyâs wrong. But now I donât use that title at all, because I donât feel like I have to explain it.
âIâve been doing this for 15 fucking years,â she continues with a laugh. âI donât feel like I need to fit into any genre or anything. Iâm just gonna do the damn thing.â