Valerie June’s tribute to Mavis Staples featuring Stax Music Academy released today

VALERIE JUNE’S “HIGH NOTE” (FEAT. STAX MUSIC ACADEMY) IS A EUPHORIC SLICE OF MEMPHIS SOUL

New Track Honors Soul Legend Mavis Staples

Listen To “High Note” (Feat. Stax Music Academy) HERE

Tour Dates Supporting Tyler Childers Begin June 2

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – MAY 31, 2024 – Today, visionary singer-songwriter Valerie June has shared a jubilant slice of Memphis soul, “High Note” (Feat. Stax Music Academy) listen HERE, watch HERE. Originally penned by June for Mavis Staples’ 2016 album, Livin’ On A High Note, this previously unreleased version, produced by June and recorded at Stax Music Academy in Memphis, TN, is a joyous tribute to Mavis on her 85th birthday and the musical pioneers that made Memphis soul the enduring, influential force it is today.

Valerie June on “High Note” feat. Stax Music Academy:

“It’s full circle in many ways,” says June. “‘High Note’ is the song I wrote that Mavis sang and named her record after. To have the students collaborate on a version of it is a story of how Mavis is always lifting up young artists like me and those she’s never even met. Her joy touches us all and keeps us looking toward positive heights. It’s a thank you to her and a love note for her 85 years with us so far.”

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

June’s busy 2024 will continue throughout the summer with a number of high profile appearances including four shows supporting Tyler Childers: June 2 at the Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheatre in Virginia Beach, VA, June 5 at the MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre in Tampa FL, and June 7 and 8 at Ameris Bank Amphitheatre in Alpharetta, GA. In addition, June will support Trevor Hall at Colorado’s famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre on June 9. For ticket info, visit: https://www.valeriejune.com/tour. Find the full tour itinerary below.

Released in March 2021, June’s most recent full-length album, the sweeping and ambitious The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers, resonates with earthy R&B production and a touch of psychedelia amidst its astral folk-pop orchestration. Produced by June and Jack Splash, the album garnered near universal acclaim. Uncut called it, “a psychedelic tour de force” that is “powerfully, elegantly subversive,” and Rolling Stone proclaimed the LP, “career making.” At the center is June’s spellbinding vocals and infectious sense of wonder that finds the Brooklyn-via-Memphis artist narrating the often-precarious journey to joyful possibility.

The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers follows June’s 2013 breakthrough, Pushin’ Against A Stone, the widely adored The Order of Time—a 2017 record that earned the admiration of Bob Dylan 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 amassed over 3 million views on YouTube. Additionally, in late 2023, she shared a transcendent cover of Duran Duran’s early 90’s classic “Ordinary World,” a track that began as the musical bed for Tractor Beverage Company’s ad campaign, titled “Escape The Ordinary.” (The widely seen TV commercial has now been viewed more than a million times at YouTube and 73 million+ times across all platforms, watch it HERE.)