Valerie June - You Can't Be Told

Breaking More Waves One to Watch for 2013 Valerie June has recently revealed her new single You Can’t Be Told. Co-written by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys and Kevin Augunas (Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes and Florence & The Machine) the song is a raw slice of mellow rock and blues carried off by Valerie’s incredible Tennessee belle drawl.

At Breaking More Waves we’re not really from the school that believes that good music has to be ‘real’ or ‘authentic’ (partly because when you start drilling down, nothing is as ‘real’ or ‘authentic’ as it seems), but if we were, Valerie would be ticking a lot of those very boxes. Irrespective of that, this song has a strange earworm effect on the brain; expect to find it lodging there after a couple of plays.

Valerie June has been out on the road recently supporting 'Mr Authentic' himself Jake Bugg and on March 5 plays her own headlining show at the 100 Club in London. We highly recommend that if you’re anywhere in the vicinity you attend this show not just because of Valerie, but because also the support act that night is another one of Breaking More Waves Ones to Watch 2013 and general all round UK blog-babe, Alice Jemima.

Valerie June - You Can't Be Told

Ones to Watch 2013 - #14 Valerie June

Our penultimate One to Watch for 2013 is Valerie June. Her music is raw, traditional, organic and massively old fashioned and yet still sounds fresh, honest and moving. On first listen she reminded us a little of a country and delta-blues version of Joanna Newsom in the uniqueness of her vocal and the way her songs are constructed from guitar, banjo and ukulele. Listen and you’ll hear that there’s gospel, there’s soul and there’s that undefinable quality that enables a new artist to grab something based in the past and make it sound ready for today.

Valerie first played in Breaking More Waves home country of the UK at the festival we adore the most - Bestival - on the Isle of Wight this September and has kept this association alive by signing to one of our favourite and most eclectic record labels Sunday Best. An album called Pushin’ Against The Stone will be released next May. Adding to the sense that Valerie deals in rawness, several of the songs on the record have been written by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys.

With her snaking medusa-like hair June cuts a visually mesmerising figure and her music does much the same. Workin’ Woman Blues is the introductory single and was released this month, it streams below together with a video for a cover of the Sam Cooke tune Bring It On Home To Me. Workin' Woman Blues cocktail of groovy horn stabs and pedaling madly guitars gets under the skin and has us nodding along in reflective agreement.

Unless there’s a radical shift in the music taste of the general public Valerie June won’t be hitting the top of the singles or albums charts, but those who enjoy her style of roots based music we suspect will find something to treasure and a little bit timeless.

And that is nearly it. We’ve presented 14 of the 15 artists we believe are Ones To Watch for 2013. There’s just one to go. Who could it be? It feels like we’ve forgotten someone. Regular readers of the blog or our twitter feed will probably have guessed by now. We’ll see you tomorrow for our final choice and see if you’ve guessed right.

Valerie June - Bring It On Home To Me (Video)

Valerie June - Workin' Woman Blues