Guitar woman Valerie June will light up at Clonakilty gig

As she gets ready for her Clonakilty gig, Valerie June tells Ed Power why her bluesy sound shouldn’t be pigeonholed

AS A BLACK woman raised south of the Mason-Dixon Line, singer Valerie June grew up with a unique perspective on life . When she goes abroad and people ask what it’s like to be African-American and spend your childhood surrounded by bible bashers and worshippers of the Confederate flag she tells them she liked it just fine.

“Folks can be conservative or racist everywhere,” says June, 33, raised in the two-horse town of Humboldt, Tennessee. “In the South we don’t hide our feelings. They are there on the front page. Maybe that’s better. Otherwise you’re pretending to be something you’re not.”