[6][2][7][8] As a teenager, her first job was with her father, owner of Hockett Construction in West Tennessee, and a part-time promoter for gospel singers and Prince, K-Ci & JoJo, and Bobby Womack.

June relocated to Memphis in 2000 and began recording and performing at the age of 19, initially with her then-husband Michael Joyner, in the duo Bella Sun.

[8][10] In 2009 she was a featured artist on MTV's online series $5 Cover (following the lives of Memphis musicians attempting to make ends meet),[2][3][11][12][13] and in 2010 she recorded the EP Valerie June and the Tennessee Express, a collaboration with Old Crow Medicine Show.

[2] Shortly after, record producer Kevin Augunas introduced June to Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, which led to the recording of June's album Pushin' Against a Stone in July 2011, which was co-written and produced by Dan Auerbach and Kevin Augunas.

[17] She contributed The Wandering's 2012 album Go on Now, You Can't Stay Here: Mississippi Folk Music Volume III.

[2][24][25] The album includes several songs co-written with Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, who co-produced it with Kevin Augunas.

And the jobs I've had have been fitting for getting a true feel for how the traditional artists I loved came home after a hard day to sit on the porch and play tunes until bedtime.

[30] Rolling Stone listed June's second album, The Order of Time, as one of the 50 Best Albums of 2017, citing "her handsomely idiosyncratic brand of Americana, steeped deep in electric blues and old-time folk, gilded in country twang and gospel yearning....a blend of spacey hippie soul, blues and folk with June’s pinched, modern-Appalachian voice at the center".

[42] In November 2021, June received a Grammy nomination for Best American Roots Song for “Call Me A Fool” featuring Carla Thomas.

Maps for the Modern World (Andrews McMeel) contains poems, artwork, and homilies that speak on ideas such as consciousness and mindfulness.