Gothic Theatre
Grace Potter & The Nocturnals
How does an independent band from rural Vermont manage to go on tour with legendary musicians like Taj Mahal, Mavis Staples, and Trey Anastasio while managing to sell more than 30,000 copies of their record, and top it off with a sold-out tour grossing over $35,000 in a single week?
Meet Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, a Hammond B-3 organ-fueled blues-rock quartet with a panache for music from decades past. The band’s stirring blend of talent and hard work has earned them a loyal and rapidly expanding audience throughout the U.S. The band’s classic yet immediate sound is strikingly captured on their new album Nothing but the Water, to be released May 23 through the band’s own imprint, Ragged Company Records, distributed through Fontana.
The quartet is led by 22-year-old phenomenon Grace Potter, whose vocal chops have drawn comparisons to legends like Aretha Franklin, Bonnie Raitt and Janis Joplin, while her scintillating work behind the B-3 conjures up visions of Stevie Winwood, Garth Hudson and Billy Preston. The original songs that fuel the new album were churned out by Potter with the help of the Nocturnals over the course of 2004 and congealed with tasteful instrumentation. Potter’s musical soulmates, the Nocturnals, are Scott Tournet (lead guitar, harmonica, vocals), Bryan Dondero (upright/electric bass) and Matthew Burr (drums/percussion). Potter grew up and still lives in a woodsy plot of land and dwellings in Waitsfield, VT, that locals refer to as “Hobbittville”; Grace and the Nocturnals now all live there together. Dondero succinctly explains their close bond: “We’re all free thinkers; we come from parents who encouraged that, and we’re into creating our own path.”
In recent months, the band has been on the road with Derek Trucks, Robert Cray, and the North Mississippi Allstars and was recently chosen to perform at the prestigious Bonnaroo Music Festival this June in Manchester, Tennessee. Bonnaroo will be but one highlight in a summer filled with them, including appearances at Mountain Jam Festival (Hunter, N.Y.) Wakarusa (Lawrence, Kansas), High Sierra (Northern CA) Newport Folk Festival and the Telluride Blues & Brews Fest. These dates, which will introduce the band to thousands of music fans and coincide nicely with their first nationally released album.
Potter and Burr started playing together in 2002 while students at St. Lawrence University in upstate New York while Potter was still a film student, and their sound gradually evolved from cover material to originals. Things heated up considerably when Tournet entered the picture in the fall of 2003, and Potter started playing the B-3, giving her songs and the band’s sound a rich and resonant character. Armed with their new instrumental weaponry, the band became a veritable force of nature, with Potter holding the foreground with vocals one scribe described as “preternaturally soulful” while the horns in the Leslie cabinets whirred and Tournet channeled Lowell George with his shimmering slide work. They recorded their DIY debut album, Original Soul, in 2003 while still attending St. Lawrence, then returned to Vermont in 2004, whereupon Dondero replaced the original bassist, locking in the lineup and initiating another growth spurt.
Nothing but the Water marks a quantum leap beyond Original Soul, which gained the group rave reviews and several thousand fans early on. The self-produced follow-up, filled with heady songs and muscular performances, was recorded during one intensive week at the Haybarn Theatre on the campus of Goddard College in Plainfield, Vt.; the campus landmark was built in 1868. In the liner notes, the band calls the theater “a creative force greater than all of us combined,” as the rustic surroundings enriched the timelessness of the performances.
“It was our intention to make an album that sounded like it was made in 1973, and we did it,” says Tournet. “We wanted to make a record that was intelligent, cohesive and accessible, like the records we love.” Burr added, “We were dreaming of albums like Neil Young’s Harvest and the Stones’ Exile on Main Street, where they went into a comfortable environment with natural reverb that wasn’t necessarily built as a studio. That’s where we were coming from, and we’re pretty psyched with the final product. It definitely captured the warmth and vibe we wanted.”
Potter and the Nocturnals have been nominated for two Jammy Awards-their song “Toothbrush and My Table” got a nod for Song of the Year, and the band was nominated for “Best New Groove” (a Jammys term for best new band). While fans of jam bands have embraced them, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals themselves would likely reject being labeled as such: “We jam but we don’t wank,” says Dondero.
The band’s spirited and inventive blend of blues, americana and rock n’ roll conjures up a nostalgic sound very much like what you’d find in a record collection from the ‘60s and early ’70s-a collection these avid young vinyl junkies are well on their way to recreating. When asked to name their all-time favorite records, the responses come fast and furious: Taj Mahal’s The Natch’l Blues, Stones’ Beggars Banquet, The Band, Neil Young & Crazy Horse’s Rust Never Sleeps, Derek & the Dominos’ Layla, and Little Feat’s Feats Don’t Fail Me Now. They also name Dylan and a soulful Tulsa maverick who’s wryly referenced in the album’s memorable opener, “Toothbrush and a Table”: “Give me back my hammer / Give me back my nail / Give me back my jeans / And my J.J. Cale.” Yup, these kids know their stuff.
After pointing out that they’re also fans of such current bands as Wilco, Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch/David Rawlings, and My Morning Jacket; Bryan explains that the band is presently under the thrall of Led Zeppelin-“something we’ve been listening to for quite a while that recently has become more of a profound influence.” Potter says that the influence of Led Zeppelin is starting to manifest itself in their shows, which are getting a more dynamic energy. “It’s getting a bit heavier,” Tournet confirms. “A big goal for us,” adds Potter, “is to make a record that resonates with people the same way that Led Zeppelin II and III did.” It’s readily apparent that Potter and her mates have ambition and supreme confidence as well as rarefied talent and consummate taste. Don’t be surprised to see them reach critical mass in the coming months.
