With a voice and vibrant energy, the Jackson, Tennessee-born songwriter and performer Valerie June both honors history and shapes the future with her songs. The multi-instrumentalist is part-spiritual guide and part-sonic wonder. And today she’s using those traits to honor two legends in art, Little Richard and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Videos by American Songwriter
Indeed, American Songwriter is proud to premiere June’s latest work, a music video for June’s rendition of the Tharpe song, “Strange Things Happening Every Day,” which includes unreleased footage from the Grammy-nominated documentary Little Richard: I Am Everything.
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Of the new work, which fans can check out here below, June says, “Together, Little Richard and Sister Rosetta Tharpe are the master sculptors and innovators of rock ‘n’ roll; the boundary-challenging Black origins of which would go on to fuel and inspire fashion, art and music over the decades.
“As an artist who studies those ‘strange things,’ the roots of American music and how it continues to create forests of wonder and magic, I was thrilled to perform this song for Little Richard: I Am Everything in tribute.”
The Little Richard documentary was released last year and the work tells the complicated story of one of the most important figures in not only rock and roll but music, itself. Check out a trailer for the 2023 film here. And check out the film’s soundtrack here.
With an explosive, firework singing voice that jumps, dips and dives over her own finger snaps, June begins the song before bringing in an electric guitar as Tharpe might in her early days of defining the roots of rock. June displays joy and channels the past in a way that honors them and makes them new all over again. The artist is the perfect conduit for the song.
Check out the American Songwriter exclusive premiere of the new Valerie June music video, which highlights the magic, miracles and coincidences that fuel creativity every day, here below. Performed in the way only June could.
Photo by Photography by Brights / Courtesy Craft Recordings
