Grace Potter: glammed up with a guitar

By Nekesa Mumbi Moody

AP Music Writer

NEW YORK

Grace Potter is in the middle of an electrifying concert with her band, the Nocturnals, performing retro-rock grooves from their breakthrough album, when she takes what seems like a surprising detour and launches into a Beyonc song.

“Why don’t you love me? Tell me, baby, why don’t you love me?” Potter howls as she does a rendition of the Beyonc jam so pitch-perfect she seems to have morphed into the diva.

She’s wearing a mini-dress and stiletto heels that Beyonc might rock, shaking her long blond hair from side to side. The only big difference between the two singers: Potter has a guitar strapped around her body.

It’s taken years for Potter to release her inner-Beyonc , but it’s a transformation that Potter felt was necessary if she and the Nocturnals were going to fully realize their rock ’n’ roll dreams.

“I think part of my growing up and part of my improvement as a frontwoman was finally embracing that spirit and that animal instinct to own it up there,” says Potter, speaking backstage before the band’s recent capacity-crowd concert at New York City’s Irving Plaza.

“It took a lot of years for me to get comfortable, strutting my stuff, dancing like a fool, having that sparkly dress on that says, ‘Here I am,”’ she acknowledges. “Because in the beginning, I was scared — I was scared that I wasn’t going to be taken seriously.”

It’s hard not to take Potter seriously now. The band has had a breakthrough year since the release of its self-titled album last summer, and the 27-year-old Potter, as the Nocturnals’ sexy glammed-up frontwoman, is poised for her own star- making turn.

“If you’re looking at female artists, there are very few emerging right now that do what she does,” says Rick Krim, VH1’s executive vice president, talent and music programming. “She’s got an amazing voice and a great stage presence. She’s fun, she’s entertaining and she’s got a great personality. It’s a great package.”

VH1 picked the Nocturnals as one of the acts to watch last year, and promptly added them to its “VH1 Divas Salute the Troops” concert in December. The group’s performance of its sultry single “Paris [Ooh La La]” riveted the crowd; album sales increased 113 percent after the concert aired, VH1 said.

This summer, the band’s profile will continue to rise. The Nocturnals are booked for major festivals this summer, including their first appearance on the main stage of the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn. They also are planning their own festival, Grand Point North, in Burlington, Vt.

“It’s exciting. We’ve been planting seeds for about eight years,” said drummer Matt Burr. “It was the perfect storm of songs getting better and touring more and more and more. ... Everything kind of really hit perfectly.”

Potter, from Waitsfield, Vt., met Burr and fellow guitarist Scott Tournet when she was a college student and working on her first album, 2004’s “Original Soul.”

Burr remembers the first time he heard Potter sing. She was at a coffee house, and she played an original tune: “Apologies.”

“I saw her play it at an open mic. I was one of many who was in attendance with my jaw on the floor,” said Burr.

He and Tournet quickly signed on to work with Potter, appearing on her album, and a year later, they released their first album as Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, “Nothing but the Water.”

Back then, Potter had many of the same qualities that make her so refreshing today: a husky, soulful voice, a deft skill as a keyboardist, good looks and a spark during her performances. But she was a brunette, more apt to wear jeans and a T-shirt during a performance, in contrast to her model-like persona today.

As the female leader of a band, Potter was unusual. She recalls when she’d be mistaken as the manager of the band, or one of their girlfriends. So she resisted dressing in feminine gear, though she was a fashionista at heart. She also felt pressure to prove herself as a female musician.

“I worked extremely hard at my craft and at being a good songwriter, being a good guitar player, being a good organist because I didn’t think people would take me seriously,” she says. “I was so focused on convincing people that I was one of the guys, so it was weird for me. ... It was tricky.”

She no longer has those worries. These days, she looks like a cover girl with her sleek tresses, sexy outfits and stilettos (she even wears them during sound checks).

Not everyone is happy with her transformation. Some point to old photographs of a dark-haired Potter dressed in flannel and jeans and wonder if she made a calculated move to change her look for more attention.

Changing her look was calculated — but not for more mainstream appeal. Potter says it was the culmination of the band’s ramped-up new sound — and her new attitude. She is more determined to give her stage show everything — including strapping on high heels and learning to play the guitar.

“It wasn’t just, ‘Hey I wanna dress up cute now.’ It really was, from the bottom up, a sense of production.”