fbpx
Celebrating 33 years of music, ideas, & community on the radio
Valerie June and Larry & Joe

What a great show we have for you this week! Valerie June is a creative artist like no other. She not only plays and sings in a most distinctive voice but she also writes books on poetry and self-improvement. Larry & Joe are also a musical group like no other in that they play “Latin Grass” – a mix of Bluegrass and Latin American flavors.

That’s all this week on eTown!

Visit our Youtube Channel to see artist interviews, live recordings, studio sessions, and more!


Valerie June

Valerie June plays eTown Hall - listen to the broadcast with Valerie June beginning August 28, 2024.

Valerie June Hockett is a Grammy-nominated artist from Tennessee. She’s been hailed by the New York Times as one of America’s “most intriguing, fully formed new talents.” A musician, singer, songwriter, poet, illustrator, actor, certified yoga and mindfulness meditation instructor and author, she honorably served as a Turnaround artist working with students for the President’s Committee for the Arts and Humanities and continues serving through The Kennedy Center.

She has recorded three critically acclaimed, best-selling solo albums and has also written songs for legendary artists such as Mavis Staples and The Blind Boys of Alabama. Her albums have been praised by numerous publications such as Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, NPR Music, No Depression, Paste Magazine, Mojo, Uncut and many others. She’s been featured on The Tonight Show, CBS, PBS, Austin City Limits, Later with Jools and many more.

An Amazon #1 Best Seller in poetry, her first book, Maps for the Modern World, is a collection of lyrical poems and original illustrations about cultivating community, awareness, and harmony with our surroundings as we move fearlessly toward our dreams. She is also the author of the children’s book Somebody to Love: The Story of Valerie June’s Sweet Little Baby Banjolele, published by Jack White’s Third Man Books.

On September 19th, 2023 she released Light Beams: A Workbook for Being Your Badass Self (available here) — an interactive workbook that builds on themes of mindfulness, harmony, and healing through her one-of-a-kind mystical excerpts, prompts, and positive affirmations.

When she’s not touring, she splits her time between Tennessee and New York.


Larry & Joe

Larry & Joe perform at eTown Hall - listen beginning on August 28, 2024.

Larry & Joe were destined to make music together.

Larry Bellorín hails from Monagas, Venezuela and is a legend of Llanera music. Joe Troop is from North Carolina and is a GRAMMY-nominated bluegrass and oldtime musician. Larry was forced into exile and is an asylum seeker in North Carolina. Joe, after a decade in South America, got stranded back in his stomping grounds in the pandemic. Larry worked construction to make ends meet. Joe’s acclaimed “latingrass” band Che Apalache was forced into hiatus, and he shifted into action working with asylum seeking migrants. Then Larry met Joe.

Currently based in the Triangle of North Carolina, both men are versatile multi-instrumentalists and singer-songwriters on a mission to show that music has no borders. As a duo they perform a fusion of Venezuelan and Appalachian folk music on harp, banjo, cuatro, fiddle, maracas, guitar, upright bass, and whatever else they decide to throw in the van. The program they offer features a distinct blend of their musical inheritances and traditions as well as storytelling about the ways that music and social movements coalesce.