Music / Review
Review: Valerie June, Thekla – ‘In 90 minutes we get southern soul, Appalachian bluegrass, psych rock & electric blue’
This one was for the dreamers and the thinkers, the singers and the shouters, the lovers and the abandoned. Two astonishing singers making something beautiful on a warm and sticky Bristolian evening.
Susan O’Neill is from Ireland and is all things husky and heartfelt. With just a guitar, one of those nifty loop machines and an understated trumpet she brought the whole place to its knees.
There was the merest hint of Michelle Shocked about her but her voice was all her own, sometimes beautifully soothing, other times a howl from the depths. Even in a short set there were too many highlights to count but Now You See It, from a forthcoming EP, was breath-taking.
is needed now More than ever
Watching Valerie June is like watching a living, breathing version of a playlist lovingly put together by your coolest friend. In a 90 minute set we get Southern Soul, Appalachian Bluegrass, psych rock, electric blues and indie pop. We get cover versions and old favourites, things to groove about to and things to sing along with. We get it all.
From a stage that is strewn with fairy lights, stars and flowers, June plays whatever she wants with a huge infectious smile, and a personality that reaches out and hugs everyone in the audience.
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You and I, from the remarkable The Moon and Stars: Prescription for Dreamers album, sets out her stall with a glorious piece of country flavoured soul from the deep south. The four-piece band adds some 60s Hammond-y keyboards to the mix, pushing her vocal past a pinched, nasal politeness into something way more expressive.
The Grammy nominated Call Me A Fool does an even better job. June’s voice is growling on the chorus and pleading in the verses. It’s a brilliant song, tossed out early in the set with the sure and certain knowledge that there is better yet to come.
Essentially this tour is in support of her new collection Under the Covers and it is her choice of covers this evening that is very instructive indeed. Nick Drake’s heart-stopping Pink Moon becomes a swirling, praise song to the Goddess.
Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World plays up the love of the natural world and playfully slides a banjo next to some first-rate trumpet playing (from Rory Simmons) and that enormous smile. Woody Guthrie’s Lonesome Valley is delivered virtually acapella with all the reverence of a hymn.
As the night wore on, Valerie June got a little looser. Maybe it was the ridiculous heat inside Thekla – “I’m gonna need a hose down after this” she said as the encore began – maybe she was simply enjoying herself. Either way, every tune started to feel like a massive rush of positive affirmation.
Astral Plane was a stoned spiritual gazing at the moon; Shakedown a stompy, bluesy groover and then Workin’ Woman’s Blues was the crowning moment. It perfectly encapsulates everything about Valerie June; it’s a bluesy, soulful, defiant stomper that just begs to be danced to, demands that hands are clapped, that rhythm is found. A blissful, sweaty, noisy, lovely thing. It was absolutely perfect.
Main photo: Gavin McNamara
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