Valerie June hires Carla Thomas for a song honoring the Stax legacy and Mavis Staples’ 85th birthday

Today a visionary singer-songwriter Valerie June has released a shimmering pop-soul gem, “Friendship” (Feat. Carla Thomas and Stax Music Academy). Originally appearing on Pop Staples’ posthumous 2015 LP Don’t Lose This (produced by Jeff Tweedy and Mavis Staples), the song celebrates unconditional love, the everlasting promise of true friendship. For this new version, in honor of her hero Mavis Staples’ upcoming 85th birthday, June enlisted another close friend and mentor, Stax soul legend Carla Thomas, as well as the talented students of Stax Music Academy. Listen to “Friendship” (Feat. Carla Thomas and Stax Music Academy) HERE, watch it HERE.

Valerie June on “Friendship” (Feat. Carla Thomas and Stax Music Academy):

“Without Mavis and Carla, the students would not have Stax Music Academy or the rich legacy they have left to the community by educating the next generation of musicians. To have a dear friend like Carla sing the song in celebration of another queen – Mavis – is a full-circle gift.”

“Friendship” (feat. Carla Thomas and Stax Music Academy) was produced by June and recorded at Stax Music Academy in Memphis, Tennessee. It follows hot on the heels of the release of “High Note” (feat. Stax Music Academy), a song she wrote specifically for Mavis and released just last week. It also marks the second time June and Thomas have collaborated. The groundbreaking soul star was featured on the Grammy-nominated “Call Me A Fool,” a track from June’s acclaimed 2022 LP The Moon And Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers.

Founded in 2000, the Stax Music Academy was created to continue the legacy of Stax by nurturing the next generation of great Soul Communicators from the Soulsville area. An after-school and summer music institute adjacent to Stax’s original headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee (now the Stax Museum of American Soul Music), the Stax Music Academy prepares students to excel and impact the world through the universal language of music.

June’s busy 2024 continued throughout the summer with a number of high-profile performances, including a series of sold-out shows opening for Tyler Childers that kicked off on June 2 at the Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheatre in Virginia Beach, VA and also ran at the MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre in Tampa, FL and the Ameris Bank Amphitheatre in Alpharetta, GA. Additionally, June performed opening for Trevor Hall at Colorado’s famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre earlier this month. For more ticket information, visit: https://www.valeriejune.com/tour. The full tour schedule is below.

June’s latest album, the stirring and ambitious Moon and Stars: Recipes for Dreamersresonates with earthy R&B production and a hint of psychedelia amidst its astral folk-pop orchestration. Produced by June and Jack Splash, the album garnered near-universal acclaim, with Uncut calling it “a psychedelic tour de force” that is “powerfully, elegantly subversive” and Rolling Stone calling the LP “career-making.” At the heart of it are June’s enchanting vocals and infectious sense of wonder, with the Brooklyn-born Memphis artist narrating the often precarious journey to joyful possibilities.

The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers follows June’s 2013 breakthrough Pushin’ Against A Stone, the widely loved The Order of Time – a 2017 record that earned Bob Dylan’s admiration and landed on numerous year-end best-of lists, and Under Cover, her 2022 covers EP, which features brilliant interpretations of songs by Frank Ocean, John Lennon, Nick Cave, Gillian Welch, Bob Dylan, Joe South, Nick Drake and Mazzy Star. June’s version of Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You” has garnered over 3 million views on YouTube. In addition, in late 2023 she released a stellar cover of Duran Duran’s early ’90s classic “Ordinary World,” a track that began as the musical foundation for Tractor Beverage Company’s advertising campaign titled “Escape The Ordinary.” (The widely seen TV commercial has now been viewed over a million times on YouTube and over 73 million times across all platforms. Watch it HERE.)

VALERIE JUNE ON TOUR:

August 10 – Saugerties, NY – Opus 40

August 15 – East Hampton, NY – Guild Hall

August 20 – Sacramento, California – Sofia Theater

August 21 – San Francisco, California – The Chapel

August 22 – San Francisco, California – The Chapel

August 23 – Big Sur, California – Henry Miller Memorial Library

August 25 – Chicago, Illinois – Old Town School of Folk Music – Fretboard Journal Summit

September 7 – Naples, NY – Hollerhorn Distilling

08 November – Nashville, Tennessee – 3rd & Lindsley

November 9 – Germantown, Tennessee – Germantown Performing Arts Center