Southern Storytellers

and they'll just be fog, and haze all low on the field.

And as the sun keeps rising, it will dissipate, and the birds are bumping at that hour, they are just-- [MIMICKING BIRDS] From the time I was born, my songs were about frogs and rainbows, and trees, and stuff like that.

As soon as I could talk, I was hearing those songs.

Please don't.

Inspired by the sun and the moon, and the stars above, Valerie June mixes the ethereal with bohemian flair, and Appalachian authenticity to create her own uniquely Southern sound.

A seasoned guitar picker, and songwriter, Valerie emerges from, West Tennessee influenced by church music, Tina Turner, and the muddy waters that give life to the place she grew up.

We spent the day with this Grammy nominee, playing music, and talking inspiration, and the importance of glitter, and big hair.

[MUSIC PLAYING] I'm your host Thoa, and this is Southern Sounds.

Thank you so much.

But this world is not my home, I'm just passing through.

My treasures all lead up somewhere beyond the blue, but the angels beckon me from heaven's open door.

And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.

When we moved out here, we started to go to church at a predominantly white church.

The churches sing differently the same songs.

The Black church sings the songs which is more like-- [HUMMING] And then I remember when I went into the white church the first time hearing them sing some of the same songs, it was more like-- [HIGH-PITCHED SINGING] And I was like, I'm going to have to learn how to sing all these songs over again.

You just learn to appreciate every voice.

I guess, I have one of those unique ones.

Well, if you're tired, and you're feeling so lonely, you wake up at night thinking that only if you had somebody.

Will I be somebody?

Somebody to love.

I'll be somebody, I'll be somebody, I'll be somebody, but I'll be somebody, I'll be somebody.

I'll be somebody, somebody to love.

I remember my mom coming in my room being like, what is going on with this music you're listening to?

I was listening to everything.

Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton, Thin Lizzie, and Pink Floyd, and then I started going just down all these rabbit holes, where I was OK, and I want to know about Janis Joplin.

I want to know about Jimmy Hendrix and all of that stuff.

Beautiful.

That's where we're going Delta Heritage Tina Turner Museum.

Cool.

Tina.

What they call the Tina Turner Museum is actually her African-American schoolhouse that was brought here from the land that it was originally on, and it's where she went to school growing up.

These outfits, of course, she donated to the museum.

Look at the glitter.

I love glitter on stage.

So don't be afraid of any of it.

Go with the rhinestones.

A lot of the Tennessee women are like that.

Dolly is like that, where it's hair, with Tina hair has always been a big deal.

I know that I'm not where Tina is yet, but girls got to have girls, right?

It's just for the vision board.

It is.

Because being a small a kid growing up, I really needed a vision of someone like Tina to be my role model because it's not easy to imagine yourself going far, but this is West Tennessee music.

This is where I come from, and my role models, and people who-- they're all from the small town, and share art with the world, My God.

And they have me in here now too.

It looks great.

I love what they did.

I love it.

They did so good.

It's so lovely.

And that's my mother capturing it all.

June Kay.

Thank you.

Mrs. June, how does it feel?

So proud of my baby girl.

What do you think it is that there's such a high concentration of musical genius here?

Muddy water.

Can I have some?

They're drinking the muddy water.

You don't need it, you've got it down.

Singing Despite the world tours, and time spent writing and recording in Brooklyn, Valerie has never gotten too far from her West Tennessee roots, returning home every chance she gets.

We went with her to Jackson, to her family's land to talk about hard work, and manifesting dreams.

So this lovely blue house is where you grew up?

Yeah.

My father and mother were like, we just want to buy some land, and we want to get away from all the world.

Well, this house down the street is up for auction, and that was this blue house, that as I went to school, we drove by this on the school bus, and I would always look at this blue house, and be like, man it'd be nice to live in a real house one day.

Welcome to the country.

It seems like your time in this house has just been so filled with life and vibrance.

It has been.

A lot of work, honestly, to.

Other kids, they got to have time, Saturday morning sleeping, watching cartoons, my mother would knock on the wall, and be like rise and shine, it's morning time, we got work to do around here.

It was-- like taking care of the land.

And in the back is where the sunset is the best, it's beautiful here too, but the colors, watching them over the pond, it's just so pretty.

I used to sit out there with my dad, and just watch the sunset for an hour, and we didn't talk, we just watch the colors.

And I just was amazed at how it was never the same.

It's always so different.

Well, I lie awake on a cool damp night.

Giving it all up to the darkness Just to see, just to visit with the light.

And it makes my eyes well again just to think of where we've been since we've begun.

Count my wrongs, and multiply them by the rights to justify just what I feel, what I feel inside.

Well, I don't-- When my father was leaving the planet, he was just like I just feel like I didn't do anything with my life, and I didn't get anywhere.

And I said are you [MUTED] kidding me.

All of this is because of you, and your energy.

I know how to work because you worked me.

As they come my way they all vanish into one.

And what would you say your dreams as a songwriter are?

I mean there's so many, they don't stop.

Fly high, cause I watch them.

You dream a dream, and as soon as it arrives in your life another dream is there.

It's always going to be bigger than you, that's the point, that's why they call it a journey.

Same driving every day.

We need songs that remind us of what we're dreaming.

We need art because it reminds us to dream.

On and on and on-- because I'm a dreamer like him.

Valerie is there anything you want to talk about, we haven't talked about today?

We talked about a lot.

Now I have to come do a documentary on y'all so I can learn your life story.