A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas

Exploring Music, Inspiration, and Positivity with Valerie June

• Visit Bentonville • Season 7 • Episode 9

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Join us for a conversation with the multi-talented singer-songwriter and R&B/soul artist, Valerie June. Valerie shares her inspiring journey from her musical roots in Memphis to her upcoming performance at FreshGrass Bentonville. 

 

We dive into her creative process, her passion for mentoring young artists, and her mission to spread positivity through her talents. Listen now! 

 

You can listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, CastBox, Podcast Casts, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, and Podcast Addict.  


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Jaclyn House:

Welcome to A New American Town, a podcast proudly presented by Visit Bentonville. I am your host, Jaclyn House, broadcasting from Haxson Road Studios in Bentonville Square. Join us as we share captivating stories and updates from our city, connecting you with the locals that make this town worth visiting. Save the date for May 17 through the 18. That's when you can see my next guest performing at Fresh Grass, which is a two-day all-ages festival taking place at the Momentary. Joining me now is singer, songwriter, and multi- instrumentalist, Valerie June. Hey, Valerie!

Valerie June:

Hello Jaclyn.

Jaclyn House:

Yes, thanks so much for hopping on our podcast today. Okay, so I said multi- instrumentalist. How many instruments do you play?

Valerie June:

Well, I play guitar, banjolele, ukulele, and banjo.

Jaclyn House:

Okay, okay, so the strings.

Valerie June:

Yes, I love strings.

Jaclyn House:

So we'll talk about Fresh Grass, because that's coming up. So that's the future piece, but take us back a little bit if you don't mind. How did you discover your love for music?

Valerie June:

Well, my father was a music promoter in our small town of Jackson, Tennessee, and he brought people like Prince and Bobby Womack and musicians of Wren Salon in the gospel and R&B world to our small town and so I grew up listening to him talk about promoting music and shows and things and helping him sometimes promote the shows.

Valerie June:

Like I would set up the green room and I would like work with my brothers and sisters back when there was no internet, so hang posters on poles around town so that people knew that these shows are happening and promote. So when I started to find that I was a songwriter and that I wanted to be in music, I knew I didn't want to be on the side of promoting. I said I want to be up there on that stage and so I moved to Memphis and I met all these amazing musicians and they inspired me and encouraged me to keep getting up on stage, go to open mic nights, go to bars, go to restaurants and over time it's been about two decades but it's grown to be able to be on big old stages opening for someone like Jason Isbell.

Jaclyn House:

That's awesome. Did you meet Prince?

Valerie June:

I did not meet him. His show was 1981 and I was born in 82. So I was one year late on the meeting.

Jaclyn House:

Darn it. I imagine, growing up in Memphis, you've had the opportunity to work with a lot of artists throughout your career. Are there some that have influenced you?

Valerie June:

Well, you know, most recently, the thing about Memphis music is, i t influences people all over the globe and they don't even realize it. For example, the spirit of Reverend Al Green has always been with me. You go somewhere, you'll hear West Day together over in airport speakers or something like that sounds so good and never gets old. But and I've seen him perform so many times in Memphis, in Memphis in May, right there on Tom Lee Park, in different places, and I know he has his church and he does really good things in the community but I'm really in a place of feeling him today in my life more than ever.

Valerie June:

And there have been musicians like Carla Thomas, who I worked with and was nominated for my very first Grammy for call me a fool on the last record with Miss Carla Thomas. And recently I was in the grocery store in San Francisco and baby came over the speakers and I was like that's Memphis music, that's Carla Thomas or Tina Turner, because I was actually raised and lived in Jackson, Tennessee, which is between Memphis and Nashville and Tina's nut bush is right off that. I 40 where I'm from, in that area and so like the influence of Memphis and what the music from my region does is worldwide. But it really just kind of hits me as I've been traveling through these decades of journey and as a young artist you know.

Jaclyn House:

Yeah, take us back a little bit as well. When you first started writing your songs, do you remember what they were about?

Valerie June:

I was so little I wrote a lot of songs while playing in the playground about frogs and rainbows and trees and clouds. And you know, I'd be playing and I would hear just this beautiful song in the ether. I don't know where it's coming from. It's just what I would just hear while I was making mud pies in a sandbox and I'd sing along with it. So similar to the way you would listen to the radio and hear a new song and start singing along to the melody. That's how I hear songs in my head and I just sing along to what I'm hearing. And that's been happening to me since I was before I was able to really talk. I was hearing these melodies and stuff. So that's how I hear music. Different musicians hear differently. Some musicians who play horns or hear horns all day, or symphony composers will hear all the instruments of a symphony and orchestra all day. I hear voices that sing beautiful songs.

Jaclyn House:

No, I love that. Do you ever find it difficult, though, to write all the things that you're experiencing down on paper to to get a song from it?

Valerie June:

There is difficulty in songwriting in sense that sometimes I hear just a chorus or just a verse and I don't hear anymore. And the chorus to verse is so beautiful that it'll cycle back through my life, like while I'm washing dishes or folding clothes or whatever. It'll cycle back through and I'm like come on, what's the next part? And I just don't have it. And this might go on for decades. It might go on for 5 or 6 years or 10 years, and it is a matter of the fact that I'm not supposed to write that song alone. And so then I have to go in the world and try to find, well, where is the partner who has the other missing piece of this puzzle. And every once in a while I'll co-write and I'll find the person who has that other side. But other times I just have all of these what I call skeletons or little scraps of songs that are in my voice memos or in my journals, and they are incomplete and they kind of haunt you. You know, they kind of just hang around like hello, I'm here.

Jaclyn House:

I'm here waiting, Right me, right me. No, I love what you said, though, about going out into the world to find that partner that you're supposed to write that song with, because what that says to me is that music is a beautiful collaboration and it's a great way to connect people, because I think music is one of those things that brings everyone together.

Valerie June:

It really is all races, all ages, music of different countries and nationalities. Music really is the universal language. I learned that the most of my first record when I recorded a lot in Nashville, then I did some in Memphis, then I did some out in California. Then I went over to Europe and I worked with some European musicians Hungarian musicians, different musicians and I was like everyone is bringing a different tone to one thing, which is the universal music language, of music, and I love that we didn't speak the same language. I don't know how to speak Hungarian, but we spoke musical language, so we were able to communicate and I do think that art and music has that kind of power, especially in an election year. It has that power to bring us together and create loving ways to disagree you know Absolutely, music being that universal language.

Jaclyn House:

Absolutely, music being that universal language. Now you dropped Ordinary World. That was your single in December. Tell us about that single.

Valerie June:

Ordinary World is a Duran Duran cover and I love Duran D uran so much. And I recently got a shout out from Simon, who has a radio show in the UK now, and he was like ahh Valerie June covered our song. So that was a really really good feeling when the person who's originally sang the song says oh, I like what you did with it. I did it for an ad for Tractor Beverages, which are organic beverage company, and they really feel and I do too that there were not enough organic beverages on the market. There's Coke and there's Sprite and different things, but it's important to have some healthy kind of like a light, playful soft drinks to have as well that are healthy and organic. So Tractor Beverages were the ones.

Valerie June:

But as we were working on the project, we were like is there a way to make it where this project ties into just the Ordinary World and how beautiful it can be. In the midst of all the sadness that we face, there's still so much beauty and that song does that. The person who's in the song is grieving. They've been going through a lot, they've been in a heavy place, but that song says I'm not going to cry, I'm going to move on, I'm going to find a way. I know that there's a way, you know, and so I love the power of that song. It really was a good song for this particular project we were working on.

Jaclyn House:

Yeah, I imagine, as you are creating music sometimes you need to maybe step away for a little bit. What do you enjoy doing outside of the music?

Valerie June:

I love this question so much. I was interviewed by an eight-year-old last week in Memphis and she said Miss Valerie June, what do you have any talents that you don't share, that no one knows about?

Valerie June:

And I didn't have it. She stumped me. I couldn't answer the question, because I draw, I paint, I write poems, I have a few books out, and I'm an author, and everything that I've been doing I share, and so now this eight-year-old has inspired me to find a talent that I don't share with the world. So I'm on the hunt for something that I can answer this question with, but I will never tell you it's going to be my thing.

Jaclyn House:

Have you ever been to Bentonville before?

Valerie June:

I've been to Bentonville before Probably have. I don't remember quite, but you know in my mind where I'm going when I come to Bentonville is a very it's the natural state, so it's gonna be very much like a nature beautiful area to be. Am I wrong or right?

Jaclyn House:

You are right on the money with that one. And I was actually gonna say is that you know you would love to draw and paint and where you'll be at the Momentary. You know, if you get a second to yourself and you've got some downtime, you're gonna be in a perfect spot to take all that in. Maybe you'll even get some inspiration for some artwork to create, but you will be in the perfect spot to create that. I mean, it's very beautiful here. We've got great trails. If you love to ride bikes, or even if you're just walking around, this will be. You'll be in a very great vicinity to get some of that artistic kind of inspiration going.

Valerie June:

Yes, maybe I'll have to stay for a few days, now that I hear that.

Jaclyn House:

Okay, now don't tease us, because we'll put together a whole itinerary for you. When so you're performing at FreshG rass? Um, this year, how are you going to pick the songs that you are going to perform?

Valerie June:

Well, I believe the the most fun thing for me to do now because I'm between records and I have three records that have come out through Concord Records label and the most fun I have is when I take some new songs that people have never heard and I mix them with record songs from all those three different records and I just go between all of the material that I've created but also throw in something new.

Valerie June:

And I went to see Carol King perform yesterday and met Kamala Harris and we, Carol King was performing right in this small space and it was so cool because she played, you know, natural woman and you know all the classic songs, but then she's 87 years old and she threw in some songs that are new, that no one had heard and that were so beautiful, and I was just like. I was like she's never sang this song before and I just it was amazing, I'm telling you. So I think it's really important, when an artist has that a lot of material and they're between records, like I am that you do play some songs that people are familiar with but also throw in some treats. So that's how I'm looking at this performance in Bentonville, plus FreshG rass oh my god, FreshG rass is one of the best gigs in the world.

Valerie June:

I've done the one um of north and now I'm gonna do the one in Arkansas.

Jaclyn House:

And I'm excited yes, we are excited to have you, as people are watching you perform. You know the next generation of singers that will be watching you. Any advice you would give them, especially if they are maybe like you. I'm finding inspiration being outside playing or, you know, making those mud pies.

Valerie June:

Wow, that's a really good question. I'm working a lot with the Stax Academy and the alumni from the Stax Academy who are Memphis musicians who grew up and they play better than anybody I know. I tell you they need Grammys all around. Young students. And as I think about it, I think, wow, I've just been out here sharing my music and I don't think about what I have to give back. This is part of what my calling is and I'll show up and I'll just say here's some ukulele stacks, give them to the kids, see what they do.

Valerie June:

But I'm inspired by artists like Mavis or, who will be 85 this year, or Ms. Carla Thomas that I mentioned earlier, who's 81. And I don't think they on purpose take the time to say I'm going to mentor Valerie June, but they are my mentors. So I think it is the way that we live our lives as artists and the way we share and the way we open up and lift each other up and lift up others that we influence young artists. So I'm hoping that I'm opening doors for younger artists to come to Bentonville and to share their craft and be fearless. And if you're black and you sing country, sing country, if you're singing blues, sing blues, don't see any lines or any kind of limits. And Booker T., who also is a stacks musician, taught me that when he worked with Willie Nelson so many different artists he just taught me and he never really said it, I just watched him learn. So I don't know. Maybe I'll teach someday in formal settings, but for right now I just try to live the way I hope can inspire others.

Jaclyn House:

ell too, you know, giving access to students, I think, is a huge gift and a huge way to give back to those students because you never know it could be man, I got this, you know ukulele from Miss Valerie June and now I'm performing up here with Miss Valerie June. So you never know. Definitely the access and students just having just the access to get those instruments is a great way to kind of spark the imagination and get them going.

Valerie June:

Oh yeah, there are so many students we were able to go with and we did it with Newport Folk Festival, where we went into the schools and we were able to take my children's book, but also ukuleles, banjoes, and just inspire students to even just play a song which connects back to math and science. It really does. It's not just only art and music. This is inspiring for them all across the board, and I was working with the Turnaround Arts, which was Michelle Obama's program to take art into schools, and that's what kind of lit the match and made me want to go into more schools and write the kids' books. So you're right, I think that's just kind of the way I need to do it. The way you just said is just like keep just following, whatever it might be, to share the one word inspiration, whatever way that looks like. If it's ukuleles, if it's the children's story, whatever it is then go do it.

Jaclyn House:

Yeah, for sure, you mentioned this earlier, but you know you also are an author and, if you can, I want to tell us about Light Beams, a workbook for being your bad a self.

Valerie June:

Oh yeah, or we could say a workbook for being your best self, your best self.

Valerie June:

I love that. Yeah, it is a book that takes some of the sometimes when your full of, we're all full of light. We all have such magic and positivity and beauty in our life and in our heart, and I'm an activist for positive, for positive thinking, for you know, I call it optimistic and positive activism. Where we look at the world and we see the things that might be heavy and dark, we see the pain, we see the humanitarian needs in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, all across the planet, in Memphis, even in, you know, areas in our nation are struggling with gun violence and poverty. We see it and we don't turn away from it. But what we do is we say, okay, if I'm going to be a light in this world and if I'm going to help to change it in my small sphere, it's got to happen in my heart first that I feel light, that I keep myself charged and uplifted, and then that ripples out to the person at the grocery store or in traffic when I want to cut somebody out. Or when I'm at the coffee shop and I'm like waiting in these long lines or whatever it is.

Valerie June:

It's the way we treat each other and the kindness that we share in each day and how we're able to share that light that we have in each other's hearts with the stranger across the way. And it's just kind of a, I imagine it's like little sparks. You know it's very small and we look at sometimes these things that are happening in the world and it's so big. And how am I? A little old me, sitting on this couch, going to do anything to help create positive change?

Valerie June:

Our work is tiny, it's very small, and when we start to do some of the prompts that are in the book Light Beams, the workbook for being your best self, they connect us in nature, they slow us down and bring us to a place of mindfulness and presence so that we can observe the mountain side and we can say, yes, we got a long way to go, as Dr. King would have said, up that mountain side, but we're going to get there. It's going to be one little step at a time that we share our light, and I believe that. So the book is full of all these prompts and all these practices that bring us to that place where we keep our lives, our light, rejuvenated and bright. You know, because we have to.

Valerie June:

It takes, it takes practice, and I call it a workbook, because you've got to do the actual practice of bringing light into your day as you have a candle or something that back there just even lighten the candle, something simple like that can shift that energy of something that's heavy and you sit with their light and you just breathe and focus on it until you're able to help another person feel their light and share their light. So, yeah, that's what the book is it's just a positive activism book.

Jaclyn House:

Yeah, I love that. I could tell that you are just very passionate about, you know, giving light and love and giving back, and I imagine that's what people will see on stage when they come see you during FreshGrass.

Valerie June:

Oh yes, I'm excited to share my Fairy Energy with y'all.

Jaclyn House:

Oh, I love that. Valerie June, thank you so much for hopping on a podcast with us today. FreshG rass is taking place May 17 through the 18 at the Momentary right here in Bentonville, and those tickets are on sale now. Make sure you grab. Grab some extra ones so that you can see Miss Valerie June take the stage. Don't forget, this is Bentonville is here to help you navigate things to do, where to eat and stay and what's going on in the city. Give us a follow on social media and check out our website, visitb entonville. com. Thanks so much for listening.