Valerie June is a country singer. Native-born to Tennesse she currently resides in Brooklyn. Brooklyn might be better associated with Biggie Smalls than stars of Glen Campbell’s stripe, but I think that you’d be missing a beat if you assumed that Valerie June doesn’t bring a whole lot of soul with her where ever she goes.
The Moon And Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers is Valerie’s fourth LP and sees her making the transition to a headspace that is beyond the stratosphere. Taking the country soul she has come to be known for and allowing it to swirl and spread across the sky like a luminous oil painting of a French pastoral horizon, she captures some mighty big feelings and conveys them with an instinctive intimacy. Like Etta James leading a tribute to Gram Parsons, or Townes Van Zandt covering the works of Solomon Burke, guided by the voice, spirit, and presence of Ann Peebles. No wall is too thick that the light of the human soul can’t pass through it.
The Moon And Stars begins with the slick and piano lead, country-swing skip of “Stay” before dancing over an earthen threshold and into the flowering sonic fields of the Satchidananda-nurtured “Stay Meditation.” From there the album shifts into the coral singer caress of “You and I,” which flows beautifully into the Parsons-esque “Colors.” The more indie-folk infused “Stardust Scattering” helps to polish the reflective mood of the previous track, after which you are carried as by a subtle momentum through the wistful, mantra-grounding brush of “African Proverb,” finally dovetailing with the show-stopping confessional and country croon of “Call Me a Fool,” where Valerie’s passionate but weary drawl is undeniable in delivery and persuasive in presentation, sounding like she is at a bar recounting the time that she showed up out of the rain at her lover’s doorstep, with saloon’s soul band rising spontaneously to match the heat and the agony of her admissions of devotion.
There are other highlights, but you’ll have to listen to The Moon And Stars yourself to discover them. You can stream the entire album below via Bandcamp:
Get a copy of The Moon And Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers via Fantasy Records here.
