Grace Potter: Burnett Out; New LP Due

T Bone Burnett-produced record announced last Spring gets shelved by record label and Potter & the Nocturnals turn to a different producer for their latest album.

By Fred Mills

Just announced: Grace Potter and The Nocturnals make their debut appearance at the Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 28 and 29 performing at the Sundance ASCAP Music Café.  The band will preview select songs from their self-titled album due this spring.

The record will be the band's third album for Hollywood Records and was produced by Mark Batson (Dr. Dre, Dave Matthews Band, Eminem, Alicia Keys, Jay-Z,).

Making it must have come at a cost, however.

Sharp-eyed BLURT readers will recall that it was announced last May that Potter hand been in an L.A. studio with produce T Bone Burnett, going through the band's material for a proposed Fall '09 release. "It's such a huge relief to find a producer of T Bone's caliber we can totally put our trust in," Potter said at the time, "not just because of the records he's made, but because of the person he is. Now it's happening, and we're excited and ready!"

Subsequent to that, Potter sat down for a BLURT interview with contributor Hal Bienstock, telling us the Burnett-produced sessions would tentatively come out on Hollywood under the name Medicine. In the interview - which appears in the latest print issue of BLURT - she enthusiastically described the album as "very different. There's a dark undertone to this one. I tend to be a bright shiny person but there's always a level of heavy heartedness to my songs. With T Bone, it's been captured sonically in ways I never expected. This one has more emotions and is more raw. It's very cinematic. Whenever I listen to these songs I want to write a movie."

She added that Burnett is "the king of cinematic songs. He treats them like they're spiritual experiences. It rattled me at first. Everything is very in the moment. It's the Dylan approach. Learn the song, then go play it."

Potter also elaborated on some of the material: "'That Phone' is a very soul/R&B attitude-y song about a woman refusing to pick up her ex-lover's phone calls. At the beginning of the project, it seemed like a possible hit, so T Bone decided to make it a 7½- minute jungle thing. That was the clincher in terms of what kind of record we were making....  I wrote the song ‘Colors' right before Obama was elected. There were lots of expectations, but also a sense of not knowing. I wanted to capture that moment because I wasn't sure anyone else would. I debuted it at a homecoming show in Vermont and got so choked up that I could barely make it through."

However, the Burlington Free Press is reporting that Hollywood "deemed [the Burnett album] too tame and has put on the shelf for now." Rumors along the lines of the album being "heavy on Grace but light on Nocturnals" have been floating around the media lately too, but neither Potter nor Hollywood has made an official comment on the matter yet. It will be a shame if the Burnett sessions never see the light of day.

At any rate, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals  also unveils the Vermont-based band's new five-piece configuration, in which Potter, lead guitarist Scott Tournet and drummer Matt Burr are joined by new bassist Catherine Popper (Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, Hem) and rhythm guitarist Benny Yurco, who also plays with Tournet and Burr in the GPN side project Blues & Lasers.

"This record is the first time it's really been us - the first time we've all found each other and ourselves," says Potter, in a statement. "The whole thing was fluid and effortless. In my mind, an album shouldn't be self-titled unless it feels that way."

Tour Dates:

Wed. Jan. 20              Norfolk, CT                Infinity Hall

Thurs., Jan. 21            Syracuse, NY              The Westcott Theatre

Fri., Jan. 22                Woodstock, NY          Bearsville Theatre

Thurs., Jan. 28            Park City, UT              Sundance - ASCAP Music Café - 5:20pm

Fri., Jan. 29                Park City, UT              Sundance - ASCAP Music Café - 4pm

Thurs., March 11        North Adams, MA      MASS MoCA

Fri., March 12            Ridgefield, CT            Ridgefield Playhouse