Album Notes

"Valerie is a pleasant surprise, a country belter out of England, where the Hollies once sang about a "Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress)." Add a fringed jacket and a guitar and you've got Valerie. In my career, I've interviewed some pretty fair singers - Emmylou, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, Gladys Knight, Joni Mitchell - and Valerie's right in there, mixing country and soul, her voice full of heartbreak and passion. Sweet dreams, indeed."
-Ben Fong Torres


Valerie was born and raised in Hull, in the county of Yorkshire, England. The youngest of five children, she felt musically inspired by her father, a gifted organist, to pick up the guitar at the age of fifteen.

By nineteen Valerie was performing original songs with her first band 'Skyline', she recalls an early music review describing her as "....breezy pop".

The songwriting continued in earnest over the next few years, spurning 'Sweetened Lies' and 'Loving You All Of My Life' among many others during this prolific period.

Drawing influences from great country performers such as Patsy Cline, Emmy Lou Harris, Linda Ronstadt and k.d. Lang, inevitably, the six piece country-rock band 'Head Over Heels' emerged - and fast became the hottest band on the country circuit, playing festivals and country music clubs all over England. During this time she recorded an album of covers to favorable review "Valerie has a great country voice...quite haunting".

Fortuitously, Valerie met country guitar legend Albert Lee (albertlee.co.uk) who performs on this her latest release. An incidental anecdote, this led to the introduction of producer Tom Tyson who wrote 'Watching You Dream' for one of her recording sessions.

In 2001 Valerie moved her home base to San Francisco because "Everyone knows the great home of country music is America...though my live performances in England were always very well received I really wanted the opportunity to perform to American audiences..."

Now a member of the Northern California Songwriters Association (ncsasong.org) her music is drawing attention and speeding her forward is her intrinsic motivation "...a deep and lasting love of songwriting and performing music keep me in pursuit of a dream".

Rob McLucky