A STORY ABOUT HOW I MET THE GREATEST SINGER IN THE WORLD, VALERIE JUNE
As soon as I heard the first musical note leaving that beautiful face, I was hooked. The love and positive vibe she shows and puts out is so incredibly powerful. I cant explain why she and her music make me feel the way they do. Valerie June is truly someone very special. If anyone knows me, they know the love that I have for good music. I believe I have good taste in music.
One night while starting to get my nights rest after a long hard stressful day at work, I turned on the television in my room, while I attempted to lay my head to rest. I began clicking the channel clicker. I came across the KCRW Television channel. KCRW is a station member of the National Public Radio. KCRW will air music shows they broadcast. Well that night they were airing this crazy and outrageously sounding, dreadlock hairstyle wearing, beautiful to the core of a woman. As I began to watch her and listen to her sing, I was instantly HOOKED. I could not stop watching. I would not let myself change the channel to watch my favorite TV show BLUE BLOODS. As I continued to watch I became more and more mesmerized by each and every note that was gloriously coming out of her mouth.
Days past by and I could not forget listening to her in my head. Next thing I found myself watching her videos on YouTube. Soon after that night, my wife bought her fourth Album, which at the time I thought was her first album, called "Pushing Against The Stone". The song that completely caught my attention, that night watching her on the KCRW T.V. show, is called "Somebody to Love". Since I can remember I have always had a love for music. However, I have never came across an artist like Valerie June who has caught my attention, like the way she has. It was like a sweet painful blow to the face. Where it was like, WOW!. I just kept wanting to come back for more. Its like a bad addiction with this women. I even went as far as wanting to see her in concert. I started to check to see if she had any upcoming shows here in California. I felt that if I was lucky enough, we just might get to see her up in Northern California. Turns out, the closest show I found at that time was in Seattle, Washington. There was no sight of any upcoming shows. I could not find any of her shows in my state. That made me a little sad. Almost a year pasted by and she came out with a fifth album called " The Order of Time". This time I was so excited to find out that she was coming to my city of Los Angeles. She came to perform at a small venue called the El Rey Theater. I bought two tickets at $25.00 each. I have paid hundreds of dollars to watch big name artists. If I ever made a good investment in music, I would say those two tickets I purchased to see Valerie June were the best investment. Going to the show I imagined wanting to meet her and getting a photo opportunity with her. But the negative part of my mind soon shut my hopes down. As me and my wife were waiting for the show to start, we began to mingle with the other spectators at the show. She is a fairly new artist. Not too many people have heard of her out here. I mean we are in L.A., the Entertainment Capitol of the world. Most people out here are seeking big name artist to listen to. So as we mingled with the other show goers standing near us, we all instantly began to ask each other, when did we begin to listening to her, and how was it that we found her. It was as though everyone had some by-chance or by-coincidence story about how lucky we all were to come across finding this wonderful and beautiful soul. I felt as though everyone there at the show was lucky and blessed to be there, and to be able to witness her LIVE in concert. The show was amazing she had me glued and hooked to her every note. She would usually stop after every song to tell a little story about the song. Stories like how she recorded her fifth album in Dan Auerbach's studio, the lead singer of the Black Keys, who helped her record her latest album. Or how Booker T Jones played the organ on one of her songs. I just could not get enough of her. The encore came and went. Me and my wife were standing a good 20 feet from the stage. As soon as the encore ended, all of a sudden she jumps off the stage and into the crowd. I could not believe what was happening. She began to walk into the crowd towards the back of the venue. In the rear of the theater there was what seemed to be a cloakroom, however they had converted it into a merchandise booth. She soon jumped into the booth and began to sign autographs. I rushed to her like a child rushing to greet Mickey Mouse at Disneyland, wanting to get that autograph or selfie, I had earlier lowered my expectations of getting. Lucky for me next thing I know I was standing right beside her. As I attempted to take a picture of me standing next to her. She immediately noticed what I was trying to do and stopped what she was doing in order to help me take a couple of photos of us together. I thanked her for the opportunity of meeting her and gave her a hug, she returned the hug with what felt like coming from her a strong embrace, where I was able to feel her super positive and loving soul. Until that I day I have only experienced that with my immediate family, my parents and children. I could just blame the fact that I must have been star struck with her presence. However that would be an understatement, because I know what I felt, and I felt her soul touch mine. I will always remember how extremely good her embrace felt. She is such a positive light to this world.
Here is one of the videos I took with my camera phone that Wednesday June 7th 2017 at the EL Rey Theater in Los Angeles,Ca.
