Grace Potter & the Nocturnals rock their home state Saturday for Champlain fest

By Jennifer Bill Herald Staff

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals have been living up to their name this summer — no rest for the wicked.

With a hectic touring schedule, which has had them opening up for Southern rock heavyweights The Black Crowes and tripping across the globe for gigs as far away as Switzerland, this Vermont rock band, which has fast become one of the state’s top musical exports, is finally homebound after a two-month stretch on the road.

“I’m looking forward to coming home, I really, really am, it’s the place I want to go more than anywhere else,” said Potter last week, on the line from Ohio from their last show with the Crowes. The band will play some headlining gigs before jumping back on with the Crowes in a few weeks. “I’m really excited to get back to Vermont and see my soul again.”

Potter is not complaining though, acknowledging that summer is prime time for bands to tour and spread their wings, especially for them, riding on the coattails of their third album, released a year ago last week. “This is Somewhere,” with Potter on vocals, organ and as songwriter; guitarist Scott Tournet; bassist Bryan Dondero; and drummer Matt Burr — who is Potter’s boyfriend — marked their major label debut with Hollywood Records, with which they signed in January 2006.

“Summer’s been kinda a whirlwind,” the 25-year-old rock frontwoman said. “It’s been very chaotic and so my entire memory of summer has been hustling from place to place and wiping sweat away. We have been really working ourselves to the bones. There’s been no kicking up of the feet at all.”

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, who met at St. Lawrence University in upstate New York and concoct a mix of rock, soul and blues, are set to play Saturday at Burlington’s Waterfront Park during the weekend’s annual Lake Champlain Maritime Festival, which celebrates Vermont’s beloved lake and the Burlington waterfront.

Having formed in 2004, the band has enjoyed a steady rise, highlighted by a Jammy music award in 2006 for Best New Groove, an appearance on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” in August 2007, and a three-night sold-out run at Higher Ground in Burlington over New Year’s Eve last year. They also snagged opening slots on tour with Dave Matthews Band, Robert Cray, Taj Mahal and Gov’t Mule, and their music can be heard on such TV shows as “American Idol,” “ER,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Brothers and Sisters,” “One Tree Hill,” and “The Hills.”

Potter, who says she’s been singing since the age of 2 and frequently drums up comparisons to raspy-rock voiced Bonnie Raitt and Janis Joplin, said she always and only wants to be herself, which is rock ‘n’ roll through and through.

“It’s always been me (when I sing) and I’ve always been loud. So I just had to find a musical genre to match my spirit. We’re just rock ‘n’ roll. I think when you have something to say you have to say it truthfully and I think rock ‘n’ roll is a good platform for that.

She says the majority of the band’s influences are late ’60s early ’70s rock music, “when the most revolutionary things were done.”

“We really pull from all the sources we can. I think rock ‘n’ roll is a lot of things. We are trying to find our own voices in a world that has changed. New music and new ideas also can be sprinkled into the classic rock vibe.”

Label life with Hollywood Records certainly is different, said Potter, who hails from Waitsfield.

“They have a whole network, a whole way in which to churn you through a media machine,” she said in outlining some of the pros and cons. “You know your CD is going to be in a CD store when you go in there. Before it was just a crapshoot, ‘I hope we remembered to send CDs to that shop in Des Moines …’

“But to find yourself in there (the stores) is a rush.”

Potter calls their progress thus far “healthy.”

“We haven’t shot to an absurd level of success — we have been in a van all summer, in a biodiesel van, it’s not like legs kicked up at the Ritz.”

But substitute the Ritz for “Potterville,” a smattering of buildings on a property inhabited by her parents — topped with a “Potterville” sign — and Potter is ecstatic. She lives in one of the homes and is currently renovating — if anything for convenience.

“I’m finally getting a bathroom put in so that’s nice. I like (the thought of) not having to run back to my parents’ house to pee.”

Still, even though living at home and in her golden mid-20s, Potter admits she has a strong maternal instinct — toward her dog.

Potter speaks lovingly of being around her small, 10-month-old Havenese, “Kick,” named for the fact that she always gets in the way, underfoot.

“I go very, very maternal. I’m always in maternal mode now even though it’s so not rock star of me.

“She’s fluffy, she’s got the rock-star hair — it keeps growing and growing and growing. They are really cool dogs and they travel well, although mine is at least 12 pounds bigger than the average. I have a mutant Havanese.”

Potter says her other biggest love is Vermont, which she says has played a large role in developing who she is, inside and on stage.

“It’s important where you’re from, I really think it defines you.

“Being from Vermont feeds my spirit, there’s definitely a pride and a torch to be carried,” she says. “When I meet people and tell them I am from Vermont, some make the (Vermont band) Phish connection … but I’m still surprised to meet people who don’t really know Vermont, I mean, maybe people know Ben & Jerry’s …

Although surprised sometimes by some individuals’ lack of knowledge about the state — and occasional country-bumpkin consideration — she also finds it humbling.

“We play southern rock/ blues/gospel/soul music — it doesn’t sound like we are crawling out from the woods of Waitsfield.

“It’s that blend of ignorance and being aware … Vermont can be a mystery, a fascination, a dream place … I love that, seeing that kind of sparkle in people’s eyes when I talk about Vermont.”

And she definitely carries that torch on stage.

“(At) the majority of the shows I go overboard sometimes, (exclaiming excitedly) ‘We’re from Vermont!’ — but the crowd doesn’t respond as excitedly as I am.”

After this weekend’s festival, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals are flying out to San Francisco to play Outside Lands on Aug. 22, a festival headlined by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Radiohead, Beck and a long list of other top acts, and then to Switzerland for a three-day festival.

“I am going to bring a little piece of Vermont with me — my dad! That (weekend is) my Dad’s 60th birthday,” Potter said.

Returning to the Lake Champlain Maritime Festival for the second year in a row, Potter said that beyond doing the rain dance, she wishes she could serenade the setting sun she said took her breath away last year.

“I hope there’s a beautiful sunset like last year, it was probably the most picturesque thing I have ever seen. It was too beautiful for words. That combination of being in such a beautiful place and our homecoming (this week), which is really special to us, we will be paying extra attention to bringing on the rock in the best way possible — without scaring people away,” she laughed.

The 2008 Lake Champlain Maritime Festival will unite with the attractions and activities that line the waterfront and in a bevy of boats, exhibits, demonstrations, competitions, food, vendors and entertainment enhance the historical, educational, family and community organizations that abound there.

Guitar prodigy Derek Trucks hits the stage the following day on Sunday. Trucks, also known for his guitar wizardry in The Allman Brothers Band, welcomes guests Scrapomatic — a Minnesota duo, one of whom sings in Trucks’ band.

Tickets for the Grace Potter show are $30 in advance, $35 day of show. Gates open at 5:30 p.m. and the show begins at 6:30 p.m. Tickets for the 7 p.m. Derek Trucks concert are $33 in advance, $35 day of show.

Both shows, presented by Higher Ground, are all ages, and children 12 and younger are free. Both are rain or shine.

For more information on the festival, visit www.lcmfestival.com or call 482-3313, or contact Higher Ground at 652-0777 or www.highergroundmusic.com.

Contact Jennifer Bill at jennifer.bill@rutlandherald.com.