Valerie June
Valerie June
Valerie June Hockett, known as Valerie June, is an Americana singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist from Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Her sound encompasses a mixture of folk, blues, gospel, soul, country, Appalachian and bluegrass. She is signed to Sunday Best label in the UK/Europe and Concord Music Group in North America...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMusician
Date of Birth10 January 1982
CountryUnited States of America
car hard paid people ready records selling served worked
I paid my dues. I have crawled to gigs. I have served people coffee. I worked hard selling all these records out the back of my car. Girl, I'm ready to sell one the real way now.
confuses music people
My music confuses people because they think I will sound a certain way because I look a certain way with the dreads.
good people singer sound strange tried voice
The challenge is how strange and different my voice sounds, so I have tried to sound like other people and tried to be something I wasn't. I have tried to be a soul singer because someone else thought that a good idea. Not because I did.
bob hit marley open people sing stage
My voice is who I am, who I was when I was 3, and who I am going to be when I am 90 years old. When I hit the stage and people do not know who I am, they automatically assume, before I open my mouth, I am going to sing a Bob Marley song!
believe voice people
The point is to raise your voice and be heard to God. You really are just celebrating being in the presence of other people that believe the same things you believe.
prayer talking people
I know a lot of people that don't pray or anything, and that's fine - but I need to. I don't even want to call it prayer, I just want to call it talking to something bigger than me.
color people trying
I've always kind of been in the middle of every room, trying to get people together, no matter what color they were.
people forever might
If you're going to be stuck somewhere forever, you might as well be around good people!
chord money save sit whenever
I was working like a dog as a housekeeper, barista, nanny, cook, so I could save enough money to really sit with my instruments. Whenever I had 20 minutes, I would practice a new chord or write a new verse.
songs
I just let the songs tell me what to do - they are my guides, and they are the boss. So I am subservient to the songs, and I let them tell me what to do. I don't judge them; I just write whatever comes to me.
dropped folks freedom grew hours jaws reckon roll spend thick tons
I grew my dreadlocks 12 years ago because they give me the freedom to roll out of bed and not spend hours on my woolly, thick hair. I get tons of dropped jaws and compliments, so I reckon folks like them all right.
lyrics music writer writers writes
Every writer writes in different ways, and so some write the music first, while others write the lyrics first, and some write while they are doing other things, and it is just nice to see how other writers are writing.
gonna man shut soon top
As soon as I could talk, I was bellowing at the top of my lungs. My parents couldn't get over how weird I sounded - like an old man when I was just a toddler! But no one was gonna shut me up.
When I was writing 'Shotgun,' it's one of the first songs that's come to me as an image.