Last Election Day, while waiting for the tallies, my family went to see Mike June play at the now defunct Jax Neighborhood Cafe. Between the show and his song “Talkin’ Revolution Blues,” he had me thinking his music’s political. Instead, he calls it apolitical – less concerned with activisim than people and the circumstances they face daily.
June’s spent the past couple years touring all over the United States with my father, Jon Dee Graham. He’s an avid baseball fan, quiet, and seen lately with singer Jess Klein on his arm, grinning that loving smile. I consider him a storyteller of the revolution.
“I would like to think that we can make change through music,” he says. “You can make people more aware. Every time I do a show, it gets at least one person thinking. In the smallest sense, if you can make people feel better than when they came in, then you’ve made some small change.
“We need a revolution that’s based on love, understanding, and empathy.”
His music is what my generation needs, and what older generations need to remember. He sings love songs about the human experience – sometimes his own. His foundation is a grassroots connection built around seeing eye-to-eye with his fans.
“People who know me well know that I’m not very good at disguising my life in my songs,” he admits. “It’s very hard to make it as a musician these days. Sometimes when I’m out on the road, I’ll think to myself, ‘What am I doing? I must be insane.’ But in all honestly, there’s nothing else that I’d rather do.
“I’ve never had an agent or a manager or a label. Now you have to pay someone to get you on radio, pay someone to get you in the press. I never had those means. The best thing about my experience in the last few years is learning that I don’t need the music industry. With technology and the Web, I can go straight to the only people that matter: the fans. If you write good songs that connect with people and play good shows, and sweat and work hard, you’ll make fans. And that’s what it’s all about: connecting.”
June started playing guitar when he was 3. His first gig came in the Eighth grade.
“We covered an Aerosmith song,” he laughs. “We sucked, but I was hooked.”
He says the best music still comes from the heart.
“All of the greatest music comes from these places. Like Townes Van Zandt said, ‘There are two kinds of music: the blues and ‘Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah.’”
Mike June next plays in Austin on Wednesday, August 7, at Threadgill’s World Headquarters.
This article appears in July 26 • 2013.