Valerie June

One Liner: Cool mix of folky soul and bluesy Americana from a gal with Medusa's hair
Wikipedia Genre: Americana, alternative, roots rock, folk, blues, soul, bluegrass, ethereal, dream pop
Spotify Says Similar To: Hurray for the Riff Raff and Rhiannon Giddens
Home: Memphis

Poster Position: 14
Slot: ?

Thoughts: It is weird, I know I have read her Spotify bio before, because it talks all about how she went on some MTV series called $5 Cover, which shows Memphis musicians as they hustle to pay the rent, live life, and play music around Memphis.  I recall that discussion, but I can't find that I actually wrote anything about her at the time, which is kind of annoying.  Anyway, her sound is cool, a mashup of southern roots-y stuff, bluesy rock and folky Americana.  I like it.
She's got two albums on Spotify, 2013's Pushin' Against a Stone (produced with Dan Auerbach) and 2017's The Order of Time.  Both are very good.  Her top song, both in number of streams and in current popularity on Spotify, is "Astral Plane" from that new album, with 3.9 million streams.

Her voice is very pretty, but it's got a rasp to it that makes it even more interesting to me. It's slightly different and, I'd say better, than the many other generically good singing voices I've heard in the past few months.  Very chill song.
"Wanna Be On Your Mind" shows hallmarks of the Dan Auerbach sound, that southern organ and xylophone under a smooth groove of bluesy singing.  That one is the most popular from her older album, with 3.3 million streams.

I dig that one for sure, and in fact enjoy that older album more after several listens to both of them.  I like the new one as well, but the older one just has a funkier, blues-ier thing going on.  I'd go watch her do this thing in person, I think she's pretty awesome.