Valerie June

Valerie June, born Valerie June Hockett, grew up in western Tennessee and spent years playing around Memphis before moving to Brooklyn. She plays banjo, guitar and ukulele, and has described her sound as "organic moonshine roots music."

Her breakthrough album, Pushin' Against a Stone, was made partly with Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys and mixed Appalachian folk and country blues with soul. The Order of Time and The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers moved toward lusher, more dreamlike arrangements with strings and horns. Her high, twanging voice and spiritual, often cosmic lyrics are the constant across all of it.