Valerie June on Joy as a Form of Resistance

The singer-songwriter Valerie June has a gift for writing contemporary songs that feel timeless and as though they could also have existed at various points across the past century. Her expansive layering of Appalachian folk, Delta blues, gospel, soul, early country, and even spiritual jazz, at once down to earth and dreamy, has drawn appreciation from the likes of Bob Dylan, Norah Jones, and Mavis Staples, and for good reason. In true folk tradition, the Grammy-nominated June views her work in one long, multigenerational continuum of American songwriting and storytelling, both ancient and urgent. Not one to chase hits or rush her process, she revels, instead, in a slow, patient devotion to her craft, as her latest album, Owls, Omens, and Oracles, puts on full display.

On this episode of Time Sensitive, June discusses songs as vessels capable of preserving and transporting us to once-in-a-lifetime moments, music-making as a mystical act, and the value of prioritizing gradual progress over instant results.

Special thanks to our Season 13 presenting partner, L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts.

Show notes:

Valerie June

[02:58] Maps for the Modern World (2021)

[04:39] Pema Chödrön

[04:39] How We Live Is How We Die (2022)

[04:39] The Tibetan Book of the Dead

[05:32] Irma Thomas

[06:52] Hazrat Khan

[10:44] Elizabeth Cotten

[10:44] Mississippi John Hurt

[16:00] The Order of Time (2017) album by Valerie June

[16:00] The Order of Time (2017) book by Carlo Rovelli

[23:42] Hitoshi Fugo’s “Flying Frying Pan” series

[24:42] Pushin’ Against A Stone (2013)

[31:29] Joni Mitchell

[34:18] Carla Thomas

[40:41] Mavis Staples

[1:01:20] Sapiens (2015) by Yuval Noah Harari

[1:01:48] The Serviceberry (2024) by Robin Wall Kimmerer

[1:05:01] Owls, Omens, and Oracles (2025)

[1:10:32] The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron (1992)

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