Valerie June embodies a joy that bursts out into her music.
The Grammy-nominated multi-instrumentalist has opened for The Rolling Stones and Robert Plant, written music for Mavis Staples and the Blind Boys of Alabama, and collaborated with everyone from John Prine to Brandi Carlile.
Through it all, joy has remained her touchstone.
The soul-blues musician and Tennessee native will be in Alberta in late July, bringing music from her fourth studio album: Owls, Omens and Oracles.
The first song on the album, “Joy, Joy” represents not only her artistic inspiration but her daily practice. It’s a conscious decision, she says.
“Actually living joy is so hard,” she says. “It is a challenge every moment.”
She often wakes up and feels anger and despair when considering the news headlines. “But then I’ll say, ‘Okay, what’s within my sphere of control, what’s the ultimate goal? And what energy are we going to use to get there?’”
“It’s a choice to practice joy,” she adds. “I want the spirit of everything I’m doing to be coming from that place of joy and hope.”
That perspective extends to her career. It’s an extraordinary privilege to make a living through creative work, she says.
“After all the day jobs, after all the study, after all the practicing … for us to get to a place where we’re able to do what we love as our craft? Every moment that I get to do art is a total privilege.”
Despite a successful career spanning two decades, June says she would never take her work for granted.
Some artists can feel secure in their job after years in a music career, she says. “But I’m not one of those artists. Maybe the work will come but you don’t know what’s going to happen. It puts you in a place of constantly living in the present tense.”
The uncertainty fuels her fire to live with passion, she says.
“This is my dream right now and I do a lot of my dreams: I write poetry, I draw, I write children’s books.”
The distinctively-voiced musician’s work ethic was forged in her childhood. She has worked her whole life, she says. As an adult, she held multiple jobs in Memphis for years to save money to make her first record, The Way of the Weeping Willow, in 2006.
Remembering those years makes the present feel even more special, she says.
“I’m busy but I don’t feel like I’m working, I feel like I get to get up every day and play in creativity and play in joy and play in music and share that with people in different cultures and all over throughout the world. I just feel lucky to do that.”
Valerie June is playing Horowitz Theatre in Edmonton July 22 and Calgary Folk Music Festival July 23. All details can be found on her website.
Valerie June will be in conversation with CKUA’s own Grant Stovel, on Wednesday, July 22, during Alberta Morning.
Enjoy Valerie June in a special live broadcast on CKUA, from the stage of the Calgary Folk Music Festival, Thursday July 23, 7:45 – 8:55 pm MT.
Plus, watch for news about Valerie June being a guest on CKUA’s Hidden Track podcast this fall!
“Joy, Joy!” from Owls, Omens and Oracles:
