PG's Rebecca Dirks is on location in Anaheim, California, for the 2013 NAMM Show where she visits the Hayden Amplifiers booth. In this segment, we get to see and hear demos of their two newest guitar amp heads -- the Classic Lead 80 and the Mini MoFo.
PG's Rebecca Dirks is on location in Anaheim, California, for the 2013 NAMM Show where she visits the Hayden Amplifiers booth. In this segment, we get to see and hear demos of their two newest guitar amp heads -- the Classic Lead 80 and the Mini MoFo.
Valerie Juneās songs, thanks to her distinctive vocal timbre and phrasing, and the cosmology of her lyrics, are part of her desire to āco-create a beautiful lifeā with the world at large.
The world-traveling cosmic roots rocker calls herself a homebody, but her open-hearted singing and songwritingāāin rich display on her new album Owls, Omens, and Oraclesāāwelcomes and embraces inspiration from everything ⦠including the muskrat in her yard.
I donāt think Iāve ever had as much fun in an interview as I did speaking with roots-rock artist Valerie June about her new release, Owls, Omens, and Oracles. At the end of our conversation, after going over schedule by about 15 minutes, her publicist curbed us with a gentle reminder. In fairness, maybe we did spend a bit too much time talking about non-musical things, such as Seinfeld, spirituality, and the fauna around her home in Humboldt, Tennessee.
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If youāre familiar with Juneās sound, you know how effortlessly she stands out from the singer-songwriter pack. Her equal-parts warm, reedy, softly Macy Gray-tinged singing voice imprints on her as many facets as a radiant-cut emeraldāand it possesses the trademark sincerity heard in the most distinctive of singer/songwriters. Her music, overall, brilliantly shines with a spirited, contagiously uplifting glow.
Owls, Omens, and Oracles opens with āJoy, Joy!ā with producer M. Ward rocking lead guitar over strings (June plays acoustic on nearly all of the tracks and banjo on one). It then recurringly dips into ā50s doo-wop chord changes, blends chugging, at times funky rock rhythms with saxophones and horns, bursts with New Orleans-style brass on āChangedā (which features gospel legends the Blind Boys of Alabama), and explores a slow soul groove with electronic guest DJ Cavem Moetavation on āSuperpower.ā Bright Eyesā multi-instrumentalist Nate Walcott helmed the arrangements with guidance from Ward and June, and frequently appears on piano and Hammond organ, while Norah Jones supports with backing vocals on the folk lullaby āSweet Things Just for You.ā The entire album was recorded live to tape, which was a new experience for June.
June shares her perspective on the album and her work, overall. āItās not ever complete or finished, your study of art,ā she offers. āItās an adventure, and it keeps getting prettier as you walk through the meadow of creating or learning new things. Every artist that you bring in has a different way of performing with you, or the audience might be really talkative or super quiet. And all of that shapes the artāso itās ever-expansive. Itās pretty infinite [laughs], where art can take you and where it goes.... I kinda got lost there a little bit,ā she muses, laughing.Juneās favored acoustic guitar is this Martin 000-15M, with mahogany top, back, and sides.
Photo by Tim Bugbee/Tinnitus Photography
June didnāt connect with guitar in the beginning, but discovered her passion for it later, when the instrument became a vehicle for her self-empowerment. She took lessons as a teenager but was a distracted student, preferring to listen to her teacher share the history of blues guitarists like Big Bill Broonzy and Mississippi John Hurt. āI didnāt pick it up again until I was in my early 20s, and my band that I was in with my ex fell apart,ā she says. āI still was singing and I still was hearing these beautiful voices sing me these songs, and I didnāt want to never be able to perform them. It was a terrible feeling, to be ⦠musically stranded.
āAnd I was like, āNow, I could go get a new band and get some more accompaniment, but how ābout I get my tail in there and keep my promise to my granddad who gave me that first guitar and actually learn how to play it, so Iāll never feel like this again.ā The goal was that I would never be musically stranded again.ā
She became a solo performer, learning lap steel and banjo along with guitar, and called her style āorganic moonshine roots music.ā Today, she eschews picks for fingers, even when strumming chords, and is a vital blues-and-folk based stylist when she lays into her playingāespecially in a live,solo setting. After two self-released albums, 2006ās The Way of the Weeping Willow and 2008ās Mountain of Rose Quartz, she connected with the Black Keysā Dan Auerbach, who recorded and produced her 2013 album, Pushinā Against Stone, at Nashvilleās Easy Eye Sound, which helped launch her now-flourishing career.
Valerie Juneās Gear
Guitars
Amps
- Fender Deluxe Reverb
Effects
- TC Electronic Hall of Fame
- MXR X Third Man Hardware Double Down booster
- J. Rockett Audio Archer boost/overdrive
Strings
- DāAddario XL Nickel Regular Light (.010ā.046)
- Martin Marquis Silked Phosphor Bronze (.012ā.054
Photo by Travys Owen
As we talk about art being a shared experience, June says she can be a bit of a hermit at times, but āwhen itās time to share the art, then there you are. Even if youāre a painter and you just put your painting on a wall and walk away, thatās an interaction that brings you out of your studio or your bedroom to understand this whole act of co-creatingāwhich to me is a spiritual act anyway. Thatās why weāre here, to really understand those rules and layers to life. How do we co-create together?
āAnd I think itās soĀ fun,ā she enthuses. āI enjoy learning, even when itās hard. Iām like, āOkay, this chord is killing me right now, or this phrase.... but Iāma stick with it. And then that likens to something that I might face when I go out into the world. Iām like, āAll right, I can get through this.āā
I suggest, āWhen you say āco-creating,ā it sounds like you mean something bigger.ā
āBoth in the creation of our art, but also in the creation of a life,ā June replies. āāCause how can a life be something this artistic? You get to the end of it and youāre like, āWow, look at what I co-created! With all these other people, with animals, with nature, with sound thatās all around....ā All of my life has been a piece of art or a collective creation. I imagine them like books: different lives on a shelf. And you go pick oneāāWhoa! I created a pretty fun one there!ā or, āOh, man, I had no hand in that....ā Close the book, next one!ā she concludes, laughing as she illustrates the metaphor with her hands.
āSo does that make all of your inspirations your co-creators?ā I ask.
Valerie June at one of her several Newport Folk Festival appearances, with her trusty Gold Tone banjo
Photo by Tim Bugbee/Tinnitus Photography
āYeah! Even if theyāve gone before,ā says June. āI was listening to some beautiful classical music the other day, and I was like, āMan, I donāt know who any of these artists are; theyāre all dead and gone, but Iām just enjoying it and itās putting me in a zone that I need to be in right now.ā So, weāre always leaving these little seeds for even those who are coming after us to be inspired by.ā
Some of her current non-musical co-creators are poets and authors, such as the poet Hafez, the philosopher Audre Lorde, poet Mary Oliver, and Robin Wall Kimmerer, a Potawatomi botanist whose works include Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, and Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses.
āItās not ever complete or finished, your study of art. Itās an adventure, and it keeps getting prettier as you walk through the meadow of creating or learning new things.ā
āThese books are so beautiful and show the relationship of humanity with nature and the way trees speak with each other; the way moss communicates to itself,ā June explains. āThose ways of being can help humans, who always think we know so much, to learn how to work together better.ā
As sheās sharing, I see her glance out her window. āRight now, I just saw a muskrat go across the pond,ā she continues. āItās about this big [holds hands about three feet apart] and it digs holes in the yard. Itās having such a great time and Iām just like, āOkay, you are huge, and Iām walking through the yard and falling in holes because of you [laughs]. Iām just watching you live your best life!ā And then there was a blue heron that came yesterday, and I watched it eat fish.... Theyāre my friends!ā she exclaims, with more laughter.
Valerie June believes in the power of flowersāand all living thingāas her creative collaborators.
It might seem like weāre getting a bit off subject, but itās residents of nature like these who are important in her creative process.
I share how, in my own approach to art, I feel as though we can always access creativity and our ideals, as long as we stay receptive to experiencing and sharing in them. June agrees, but comments that sometimes her best self only wants to sit and focus: āNo more information; no more downloads, please.ā
An encounter with Memphis-based blues guitarist Robert Belfour, who June frequently saw perform, expanded that perspective for her. She shares about a time she went up to him after a show: āI was like, āHey, I would love to work with you on some music and maybe we could co-write a song or something.ā He was like, āNope! I donāt wanna do it.ā And I said, āWhaaat?ā And heās like, āNo. I do what I do, and I do not do what anybody else does; I just do what I do.āā
Sometimes, she says, āI think thatās just as much of an outlook to have with creating as anything. Itās like, āOkay, Iām there, Iām where I wanna be. I donāt want to be anywhere else.āā
āThatās why weāre here, to really understand those rules and layers to life. How do we co-create together?ā
Part of whatās so enjoyable about speaking with June is realizing that she truly exists on her own plane. She has no pretense, and in that, doesnāt hide some of the fears that weigh on her mind at times. But she doesnāt let those define her. Itās her easy, exuberant optimism that sparks a feeling of friendship between us, without having known each other before that afternoon. What are some of her guiding principles as an artist, I wonder?
āI sit with the idea of, āWho am I creating this for?āā she says, āand returning to the fact that Iām doing this for me, and, as Gillian Welch said, āIām gonna do it anyway even if it doesnāt pay.ā This is what I wanna do. And reflecting on that and letting that kind of be my guiding force. Itās just something that I enjoy, that I really wanna do.ā
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From there, the conversation meanders in other directions, and June even generously asks me a few questions about my own artistic beliefs. We share about trusting your gut instinct, and walking away from situations and people who donāt serve us. This reminds her of a bigger feeling.
āWith everything that these times hold for us as humans,ā she shares, āfrom the inequality that we face to the environmental change, the political climate, and all the things that could lead us to fear or negativity.... I started to think about it, and Iām like, āOkay, well, maybe we are fucked! Maybe the planet is going to eject us and all of the other things are gonna come true! Well, if thatās whatās gonna happen, who do I wanna be?ā
āI want to go out in a way thatās sweet or kind to other people, enjoying this experience, these last moments, and building togetherness through music. I want to co-create a beautiful life even in the face of all of that. Thatās what I want to do.ā
Two Iconic Titans of Rock & Metal Join Forces for a Canāt-Miss North American Trek
Tickets Available Starting Wednesday, April 16 with Artist Presales
General On Sale Begins Friday, April 18 at 10AM Local on LiveNation.com
This fall, shock rock legend Alice Cooper and heavy metal trailblazers Judas Priest will share the stage for an epic co-headlining tour across North America. Produced by Live Nation, the 22-city run kicks off September 16 at Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, MS, and stops in Toronto, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and more before wrapping October 26 at The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands, TX.
Coming off the second leg of their Invincible Shield Tour and the release of their celebrated 19th studio album, Judas Priest remains a dominant force in metal. Meanwhile, Alice Cooper, the godfather of theatrical rock, wraps up his "Too Close For Comfort" tour this summer, promoting his most recent "Road" album, and will have an as-yet-unnamed all-new show for this tour. Corrosion of Conformity will join as support on select dates.
Tickets will be available starting Wednesday, April 16 at 10AM local time with Artist Presales. Additional presales will run throughout the week ahead of the general onsale beginning Friday, April 18 at 10AM local time at LiveNation.comTOUR DATES:
Tue Sep 16 ā Biloxi, MS ā Mississippi Coast Coliseum
Thu Sep 18 ā Alpharetta, GA ā Ameris Bank Amphitheatre*
Sat Sep 20 ā Charlotte, NC ā PNC Music Pavilion
Sun Sep 21 ā Franklin, TN ā FirstBank Amphitheater
Wed Sep 24 ā Virginia Beach, VA ā Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater
Fri Sep 26 ā Holmdel, NJ ā PNC Bank Arts Center
Sat Sep 27 ā Saratoga Springs, NY ā Broadview Stage at SPAC
Mon Sep 29 ā Toronto, ON ā Budweiser Stage
Wed Oct 01 ā Burgettstown, PA ā The Pavilion at Star Lake
Thu Oct 02 ā Clarkston, MI ā Pine Knob Music Theatre
Sat Oct 04 ā Cincinnati, OH ā Riverbend Music Center
Sun Oct 05 ā Tinley Park, IL ā Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre
Fri Oct 10 ā Colorado Springs, CO ā Broadmoor World Arena
Sun Oct 12 ā Salt Lake City, UT ā Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre
Tue Oct 14 ā Mountain View, CA ā Shoreline Amphitheatre
Wed Oct 15 ā Wheatland, CA ā Toyota Amphitheatre
Sat Oct 18 ā Chula Vista, CA ā North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre
Sun Oct 19 ā Los Angeles, CA ā Kia Forum
Wed Oct 22 ā Phoenix, AZ ā Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
Thu Oct 23 ā Albuquerque, NM ā Isleta Amphitheater
Sat Oct 25 ā Austin, TX ā Germania Insurance Amphitheater
Sun Oct 26 ā Houston, TX ā The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
*Without support from Corrosion of Conformity
MT 15 and Archon 50 Classic amplifiers offer fresh tones in release alongside a doubled-in-size Archon cabinet
PRS Guitars today released the updated MT 15 and the new Archon Classic amplifiers, along with a larger Archon speaker cabinet. The 15-watt, two-channel Mark Tremonti signature amp MT 15 now features a lead channel overdrive control. An addition to the Archon series, not a replacement, the 50-watt Classic offers a fresh voice by producing retro rock āclassicā tones reminiscent of sound permeating the radio four and five decades ago. Now twice the size of the first Archon cabinet, the Archon 4x12 boasts four Celestion V-Type speakers.
MT 15 Amplifier Head
Balancing aggression and articulation, this 15-watt amp supplies both heavy rhythms and clear lead tones. The MT 15 revision builds off the design of the MT 100, bringing the voice of the 100ās overdrive channel into its smaller-format sibling. Updating the model, the lead channel also features a push/pull overdrive control that removes two gain stages to produce vintage, crunchier āmid gainā tones. The clean channel still features a push/pull boost control that adds a touch of overdrive crunch. A half-power switch takes the MT to 7 watts.
āSeven years ago, we released my signature MT 15 amplifier, a compact powerhouse that quickly became a go-to for players seeking both pristine cleans and crushing high-gain tones. In 2023, we took things even further with the MT 100, delivering a full-scale amplifier that carried my signature sound to the next level. That inspired us to find a way to fit the 100's third channel into the 15's lunchbox size,ā said Mark Tremonti.
āToday, Iām beyond excited to introduce the next evolution of the MT15, now featuring a push/pull overdrive control on the Lead channel and a half-power switch, giving players even more tonal flexibility to shape their sound with a compact amp. Canāt wait for you all to plug in and experience it!ā
Archon Classic Amplifier Head
With a refined gain structure from the original Archon, the Archon Classicās lead channel offers a wider range of tones colored with gain, especially in the midrange. The clean channel goes from pristine all the way to the edge of breakup. This additional Archon version was developed to be a go-to tool for playing classic rock or pushing the envelope into modern territory. The Archon Classic still features the originalās bright switch, presence and depth controls. PRS continues to stock the Archon in retailers worldwide.
āThe Archon Classic is not a re-issue of the original Archon, but a newly voiced circuit with the lead channel excelling in '70s and '80s rock tones and a hotter clean channel able to go into breakup. This is the answer for those wanting an Archon with a hotrod vintage lead channel gain structure without changing preamp tube types, and a juiced- up clean channel without having to use a boost pedal, all wrapped up in a retro-inspired cabinet design,ā said PRS Amp Designer Doug Sewell.
Archon 4x12 Cabinet
As in the Archon 1x12 and 2x12, the mega-sized PRS Archon 4x12 speaker cabinet features Celestion V-Type speakers and a closed-back design, delivering power, punch, and tight low end. Also like its smaller brethren, the 4x12 is wrapped in durable black vinyl and adorned with a British-style black knitted-weave grill cloth. The Archon 4x12 is only the second four-speaker cabinet in the PRS lineup, next to the HDRX 4x12.
PRS Guitars continues its schedule of launching new products each month in 2025. Stay tuned to see new gear and 40 th Anniversary limited-edition guitars throughout the year. For all of the latest news, click www.prsguitars.com/40 and follow @prsguitars on Instagram, Tik Tok, Facebook, X, and YouTube.
For two decades, Clapton's Choice Signature Strings have delivered the legendary tone Eric Clapton relies on every time he picks up an acoustic guitar. To celebrate this milestone, Martin Guitar is introducing limited-edition 20th anniversary packaging for these fan-favorite strings--available now through March 2026.
Every limited-edition pack also gives players a chance to win a Martin 000-EC 30th Anniversary guitar--a beautifully crafted instrument with a retail value of $4,999, inspired by the Martin guitars Eric played during his legendary MTV Unplugged performance. The guitar will be awarded to one lucky winner who finds a special ticket inside a pack of strings.
Fans can also enter a second-chance giveaway online for more opportunities to win exclusive prizes, including a Martin guitar strap, poster, collectible lanyard with three custom patches, or even a year's supply of strings.This contest is open to U.S. residents only and ends March 31, 2026. No purchase necessary.
Enter now and learn more at martinguitar.com/eric-clapton-giveaway.
The anniversary release also coincides with the upcoming arrival of Unplugged: Enhanced Edition on vinyl and CD, available May 9. The iconic installment of the MTV Unplugged series--and the greatest-selling live album of all time--returns over 30 years later in an all-new extended, remixed, and remastered version. Featuring never-before-heard commentary from Eric recorded just before the original 1992 performance, the release offers fresh insight into the inspiration behind the songs and includes tracks not featured in the original MTV airing.
Crafted from 92/8 phosphor bronze, Claptonās Choice Signature Strings are known for their warm, rich tone, smooth feel, and long-lasting performance. They're the same strings Eric uses in the studio and on stage--including during his current eight-night residency at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo--and he calls them "the sound that I demand."
Whether you're chasing Eric's iconic tone or simply looking for strings that deliver great sound and playability, now is the perfect time to pick up a pack--available in a music store near you or online at
martinguitar.com--and celebrate two decades of signature sound.