#valerie june

[bttrflyblu]

The Life I Used To Live (Lightnin' Hopkins Cover)

#music #valerie june #Youtube

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Rhiannon Giddens - “The Ballad of Sally Anne”

The banjo is great.

The drums adds extra heft.

The fiddle is simpatico.

But when Rhiannon Giddens tosses in layers of piano, horns, cello and backgrounds to the arrangement, her version of “The Ballad of Sally Anne” winds up too busy for its own good.

Giddens’ track is out to announce the April 12 arrival of My Black Country: The Songs of Alice Randall, which also includes contributions from Allison Russell, Valerie June, Leyla McCalla, Sunny War and others.

“Because all the singers of my songs had been white, because country has whitewashed black lives out of country space, most of my audience assumed the stars of my songs were all white,” Randall said in a statement.

“I wanted to rescue my black characters. This album does that.”

Giddens’ number serves the purpose well, but has too much going on. This is particularly disappointing as the sparse beginning reveals just how much more her version of “The Ballad of Sally Anne” could’ve been with fewer collaborators.

Grade card: Rhiannon Giddens - “The Ballad of Sally Anne” - C+

2/21/24

#Youtube #rhiannon giddens #alice randall #the ballad of sally anne #my black country: the songs of alice randall #leyla mccalla #allison russell #sunny war #valerie june #carolina chocolate drops #our native daughters

[agirlnamedbone]

[VALERIE JUNE]

#op #valerie june #bluegrass #folk #singer-songwriter

[culturalappreciator]

#valerie june #songstress #country #country & western

[fangomusic]

But she could play the guitar just like a-ringing a bell...

Susanna Hoffs, Lianne La Havas, Valerie June, Cat Power, Joan Jett, Poison Ivy, Badi Assad, Tash Sultana, St. Vincent.

#bangles #susanna hoffs #lianne la havas #valerie june #cat power #chan marshall #joan jett #joan jet and the blackhearts #the runaways #poison ivy #the cramps #badi assad #tash sultana #st. vincent #annie clark #brazil #nyc #melbourne #australia #usa #los angeles #tennessee #london #uk

[notchainedtotrauma]

And I. I want to be an instrument. For you, with you, in you. If only.

from The Lonely Letters by Ashon T. Crawley

#Ashon T. Crawley #Valerie June #Youtube

[lesbianjudasiscariot]

Get me on the shakedown breakdown showdown

#shakedown #valerie june #the order of time #audio #♡ #Spotify

[misha-illustration]

Lovely Valerie June ⚘️

#illustration #artwork #digital art #art #valerie june #krita #made with krita #artists on tumblr

[cbjustmusic]

Valerie June and Mick Flannery team up with Nick and Helen Forster for this rendition of John Prine's "Angel From Montgomery." _________________________ Angel From Montgomery Songwriter: John Prine

I am an old woman Named after my mother My old man is another Child who's grown old

If dreams were lightning And thunder were desire This old house would've burned down A long time ago

Make me an angel That flies from Montgomery Make me a poster Of an old rodeo Just give me one thing That I can hold on to To believe in this livin' Is just a hard way to go

When I was a young girl Well, I had me a cowboy He weren't much to look at Just a free ramblin' man

But that was a long time And no matter how I tried The years just flowed by Like a broken down dam

Make me an angel That flies from Montgomery Make me a poster Of an old rodeo Just give me one thing That I can hold on to To believe in this livin' Is just a hard way to go

There's flies in the kitchen I can hear 'em there buzzin' And I ain't done nothing Since I woke up today

How the hell can a person Go to work in the morning Then come home in the evening And have nothing to say?

Make me an angel That flies from Montgomery Make me a poster Of an old rodeo Just give me one thing That I can hold on to To believe in this livin' Is just a hard way to go

To believe in this livin' Is just a hard way to go

#valerie june #mick flannery #nick forster #helen forster #etones

[bttrflyblu]

Valerie June - Strange Things Happening Every Day (from "Little Richard: I Am Everything")

#music #Valerie June #Youtube

[krispyweiss]

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Day No. 3, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, Oct. 1, 2023

Not only are they fascinating to watch, hummingbirds have fantastic taste in music.

How else to explain the little avian hovering about Sierra Hull’s soundcheck and late-morning set at the Banjo stage on Day Three of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass?

Little birdie picked a good place to flutter around as Hull and her band played an energetic bluegrass-with-drums set, which Mr. and Mrs. Sound Bites took in in full after catching a few songs of Jon Langford & the Bright Shiners’ Scottish protest music at the Rooster.

Peeling off to catch parts of sets would be the theme for a first day of October stacked with outstanding performers who put the Hardly Strictly in the formerly Bluegrass-only fest inside San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.

But first, a full set by Eilen Jewell - playing a guitar borrowed from Chuck Prophet - on Rooster, which found the singer and her band playing tracks from Gypsy and Get Behind the Wheel and simply slaying with a note-perfect rendition of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Green River.” Guitarist Jerry Miller is nearly as important as Jewell to the band’s success, adding twangy, country-rock spice to Jewell’s songs of love and adventure.

Then, back to the Banjo stage where musical chameleon Gabby Moreno served up slices of cumbia and American rock ‘n’ roll back-to-back and sung them in Spanish and English.

After a quick visit to Prophet and the Mission Express on Rooster, the Sound Biteses floated over to Swan for Valerie June. Wearing a loud orange outfit and backed with pedal steel, organ and rhythm section, June spun an impossible-to-categorize web of funk, soul and Americana while playing banjo and acoustic guitar and meting out songs such as “Call Me a Fool.”

Peeling off once again, the Sound Biteses were back at Banjo in time for the Travelin’ McCourys, with Punch Brothers/Might Poplar (whom we missed in favor of Emmylou Harris) banjo man Noam Pikelny filling in for Rob McCoury, and a blistering set of pure bluegrass that included “The Shaker” and “Scarlet Begonias,” with a triple-time back end, filling the park the Grateful Dead played so many times.

“Seems appropriate,” Ronnie McCoury said as your diarists peeled off yet again to the tiny Horseshoe Hill stage, for a packed 100th-anniversary tribute to Doc Watson by Mitch Greenhill, playing one of Watson’s guitars, Nora Brown and Stephanie Coleman with guest slots from Andrew Marlin, June and Langford.

“Summertime,” June’s rendition of “Handsome Molly,” Langford getting the lyrics to “Tom Dooley” from a piece of paper and “Southbound” were all on offer. And it all ended with the glorious experience of a couple hundred people singing “Keep on the Sunny Side” under the foggy skies and tall trees of Golden Gate Park.

After this life-affirming interlude, the Jerry Douglas Band was pushing blues-rock and jazz flecked with bluegrass on the Swan stage. Another peel and back to the Banjo where Rufus Wainwright played solo-acoustic and his singular voice wafted across the large expanse to the Arrow stage where Tommy Emmanuel dealt the festival’s penultimate set to a relatively small, but appreciative, hard-listening audience.

Gasps filled the air as Emmanuel played inhuman runs on his acoustic guitar on such songs as “Sixteen Tons,” “Deep River Blues” and “Blue Moon.” He introduced a phantom band as he played a bassline, then percussion and rhythm before adding lead and left the audience agog as he played them simultaneously. He wrapped up his portion with the instrumentals “Imagine” and “Beatles Medley” as Harris began her closing set back where the day began on Banjo.

With a four-piece band of multi-instrumentalists behind her, Harris concluded HSB in grand style. “Miss the Mississippi and You,” “Pancho and Lefty,” “Hickory Wind,” “Evangeline” and “The Boxer” all filled the cool, early-evening air and added a extra layer of wistfulness to the end of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2023.

Read Sound Bites’ Day One review here

Read Sound Bites’ Day Two review here

10/2/23

#sierra hull #jerry douglas #eilen jewell #chuck prophet #the travelin’ mccourys #valerie june #tommy emmanuel #emmylou harris #doc watson #rufus wainwright #gabby moreno #jon langford

[runaway90s]

#valerie june #astral plane #Youtube

[culturalappreciator]

#valerie june #songstress #country #country & western

[deadassdiaspore]

#Black musicians #Blues #Folk #Bluegrass #Valerie June #Black women in music

[thebowerypresents]

Valerie June, Rachael Davis and Thao Bring Musical Conversation to Brooklyn Opera House

Valerie June, Rachael Davis and Thao – Brooklyn Opera House – November 16, 2023

“We’re going to play you a few songs and tell you a few stories.” That’s how Valerie June described the night ahead at the beginning of the set at the Brooklyn Opera House on Thursday. Yes, that’s a pretty accurate description of the show, but it somehow doesn't quite capture the intimate and personal energy in the room. The stage was filled with three women — June, Rachael Davis and Thao (the fourth member of the touring ensemble, Yasmin Williams, was out sick) — several banjos, guitars and a ukulele. The ensuing 90 minutes were filled with yes, songs and stories, stories about songs and songs telling a story. The set ran like words on the page of a book, going left to right, June, then Davis, then Thao, each singing a song, each linking it to something deeper. The three voices seemed to come from three different places, June summoning emotions — joy, sadness, combinations of each — from some faraway space, Davis both powerful and wholesome, a jovial spirit, and Thao off-kilter and confident, an admirable brashness. 

The first round felt like icebreakers, with Davis’s “Circle of the Sun” a sunshine gospel that had everyone in the room clapping along, and Thao’s “Kindness Be Conceived” introducing some gritty blues guitar to match her singing. From there, things loosened up, acquaintances turning into friends, turning into the best of friends in real time. Along the way, the stories grew increasingly more personal: Davis’s long tale about learning to play banjo and the first song she learned was more endearing than rambling, June talking about the loss of an old friend and then later the otherworldly inspiration that led to “Astral Plane,” and Thao telling of the intense familial history behind “Temple,” a story that gets lost in her normal full-band live show, but, laid bare and raw, was an emotional center to the night.

Still, there were plenty of laughs and joy and fun, some poetry and some “mouth trumpet.” Of course, all this warmth and mutual love made way for adding harmonies on one another’s songs, and songs sung together scattered through the night. “I Shall Be Released” was an obvious choice, but the three distinct voices, mixed with guitar, banjo and Thao’s slide, brought extra enchantment to the familiar sing-along. The show ended with the trio singing the traditional “Shady Grove,” which came off like a time-traveling mirror, reflecting how the roots of folk music have suffused the three women’s own music and lives in such different ways. But perhaps that’s a story for another time. —A. Stein | @Neddyo

Photos courtesy of Ellen Qbertplaya | @Qbertplaya

#Aaron Stein #Brooklyn #Brooklyn Opera House #Ellen Qbertplaya #Live Music #Music #New York City #Photos #Rachael Davis #Review #Thao #Thao Nguyen #Valerie June #Yasmin Williams

[protoslacker]

Nico - These Days (Visualizer)

The Velvet Underground

I really love Nina Simone's voice, so it's come as a shock to discover that some people really don't. Driving the car today there was a short interview with Valerie June The topic moved from voices changing as singers grow older, to singers with unusual voices that made an impression on Valerie June. She said that when she first heard Nico and first heard Nina Simone she thought she didn't like their voices.

Now she loves the voices because they take her to places only following their voices can take her.

#music #nico #valerie june #nina simone #Youtube