Today, Valerie June makes her return to music with a new three-song suite that she produced with Jack Splash (Kendrick Lamar, Alicia Keys, John Legend). It’s a fantasia of mystical country-soul, dreamy ambiance, and afrobeat-steeped soul that reminds listeners of the towering talent the Memphis-born, Brooklyn-based artist possesses.
June is proving that Black women are not monolithic and exist/thrive in many different spaces. Valerie June’s previous two records — 2013’s Pushin’ Against A Stone and 2017’s The Order Of Time — established her as a vital voice in the world of roots music, earning the admiration of Bob Dylan and landing on best-of-the-year lists from the New York Times, The New Yorker and more.
Take a listen to “Stay,” “Stay Meditation,” and “You and I” below:
In addition, Valerie will host a guided “Stay” themed meditation tomorrow Saturday, November 14th via her YouTube page from her home in Brooklyn, where she’ll also talk about the new two songs and the meditation track she’s releasing today .
In the lead-up to last week’s election, Valerie June — inspired by the enthusiastic reaction to her “Young, Gifted, & Black” Spotify playlist, as well as the spirit of late musician and civil rights activist Nina Simone — curated a voter mobilization livestream entitled Voice Your Vote that platformed exciting young black artists like Brittany Howard, Jon Batiste, Black Pumas, Rhiannon Giddens, and more in an effort to mobilize voters and stop voter suppression endemic in Black and brown communities. Proceeds from the stream went to Stacey Abram’s Fair Fight and Movement Voter Project’s Black-Led Organizing Fund.
Valerie June
*Feature image courtesy of Jerome Ware / Shore Fire Media
