This One's For the Boys

Just got Grace Potter's This is Somewhere. (Thanks John!) I have to say it's one hell of a band. Potter is quite a versatile songwriter and, considering her age, she seems to be in touch with something deep in the roots of American rock (including blues, jazz and gospel). While this album doesn't pack the raw power of the other album I've been able to hear (Nothing But the Water, on Yahoo music and which I plan on picking up), it certainly seeps in and moves you. There are two main contributors to that seepage: Grace's amazing voice and Scott Tournet's guitar. There's a sophistication here that the earlier work I've heard lacks. It showcases Potter's songwriting as opposed to just her voice; it shows her as a whole artist rather than the sum of her parts.

While the album is quite good, with an excellent pop sensibility (no, "pop" is not a bad word if you filter it through your Brian Wilson/Phil Spector glasses), what it lacks is that raw, emotional, impromptu energy that the band seems to draw from their audience at live shows. How can you capture that in the studio? It seems as though the studio provides a blueprint and the songs evolve over time. The way good songs do.

However, from what I understand, the albums are merely meant to lull you into simple enjoyment and entice you to their live shows. Once you arrive, it appears as though you enter a rock and roll tent revival where you are filled with the spirits of the blues and soul musicians that lead to Grace Potter & the Nocturnals. John tells me they play 150 - 200 shows a year, so I hope none of us miss that opportunity.

Ah, I promised something for the boys. Check out this video of Grace Potter & the Nocturnals performing "Nothing But the Water" from the album of the same name. I defy you to not find yourself mesmerized by this performance. There isn't a superlative to remotely describe what they do here. Total mass destruction. I just hope they closed this show, because anyone who had to follow them on stage might have given up music in shame. This one performance shows the depth of their influences. It's like Crazy Horse, Janis Joplin and The Allman Brothers decided to discuss Muddy Waters in a gospel church.

How is it for the boys? Well, at about 3 minutes in Grace Potter shows how a woman with a soulful, powerful voice can take a simple movement and make you putty in her hands. The best response I've gotten to this video thus far is, "Is it wrong that I wish I were a Hammond B3 organ?"