Valerie June Announces New Album Owls, Omens, and Oracles
Owls, Omens, and Oracles will arrive April 11 via Concord Records. Listen to "Joy, Joy!" below.
Photo by Travys Owen
Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Valerie June will return on April 11 with a new album, Owls, Omens, and Oracles. Due out via Concord Records, the project is, according to a press release, “rooted in the belief that what we focus on is what we manifest.” She and her band (Kaveh Rastegar, Steven Hodges, Nate Walcott) sound especially clear-eyed and radical on lead single “Joy, Joy!,” a staggering demand for Black triumph in the wake of skepticism, lost connections and ongoing media exhaustion.
June says of the project, particularly “Joy, Joy!”: “Everyone has felt moments of darkness, depression, anxiety, stress, ailments, or pain. Some say it takes mud to have a lotus flower. This song reflects on the hard times we might face: to fail, to fall, to lose, to be held down, to be silenced, to be shut out yet still hold onto a purely innocent and childlike joy. I come from a heritage of ancestors who lived this truth by inventing blues music. Generations aer they’ve gone, the inner joy they instilled in us radiates and lifts cultures throughout the world. From the world to home, what would a city council focused on inspiring inner joy for all of a town’s citizens look like? As the times are changing across the planet, what would it look like to collectively activate our superpowers of joy?”
Check out the music video for “Joy, Joy!,” the Owls, Omens, and Oracles artwork and tracklist, and Valerie June’s upcoming tour dates below.
