Grace Potter shares her four road trip essentials with us: driver's license, a hammer, water and her newest album, Mother Road, blasting through the car speakers.
Your soundtrack of choice is a vital component to any long drive, capturing the energy and tone you want set for the journey. Potter's Mother Road checks those boxes. It's an amalgam of her life experiences, inspired by a solo road trip she took back in the summer of 2021.
The magic of cruising Route 66 — once dubbed "the mother of all roads" in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, hence the album name — helped shape what Potter considers to be a turning point in her career.
"As we got into tracking, I didn't have a major plan of attack; I just knew that I was proud of the music I had made. And I captured the essence of who I really am by letting that freak flag fly a little higher this time than it ever has before," Potter says. "It was so comfortable. There's such a warm embrace of myself, there's a lot of self-acceptance and just honoring who I have become, spending more of my time on the road than off the road."
Potter grew up in Vermont, and cites her hometown memories as another source of inspiration for the lyrics of Mother Road. This is a record that not only provided Potter with a turning point in her extensive, decades-long career as a songwriter and musician, but also in her understanding of herself.
"It all came down to growing up and recognizing how much I don't want to grow up, or how much it is impossible for me to escape the clutches of my idiosyncrasies and the things that have come to define me, and then escaping them anyways," Potter says.
"You know, really coming into your own is about being comfortable with not knowing everything. And I think that this is a pretty immature expression of that, but that was intentional. I'm not necessarily the most mature person, but I'm certainly well-seasoned. I've worked these muscles for a long time. And I think I know myself really well."
The title song, "Mother Road," is the one Potter believes is the guiding roadmap through the rest of the record. But when asked about the most defining lyrical moment on the album, "Lady Vagabond" comes to Potter's mind first.
"The mistakes we make, and even the crashes that we've endured, are epic reminders of how far we've come. And there's a majesty in honoring the trail of destruction, as well as all of the good intentions that can sometimes get in the way of discovering your own truth," says Potter.
Touring, especially behind an album so intertwined with the concept of finding yourself while traveling, has Potter thrilled to be back out on the wide open road.
"I really believe in the world of collaboration, in any capacity, whether it's through music or other forms of art," says Potter. "This is my calling. It's definitely why I was put on this planet. So I'm going to kick up stardust in every direction from here on out."
Potter recalls the warm welcome she received from fans at her last Orlando show, comparing it to a big family reunion or homecoming show. Even when far away from her own hometown back in Vermont, Potter finds comfort in the crowds that show up to support and experience her music alongside her. She'll no doubt find some comfort in the faithful who show up for her concert at the House of Blues on Friday, Feb. 2.
Mother Road is a source of new beginnings and realizations for Potter, but she hopes it to be an experience that can also be shared with others — a quintessential road trip album you can blast with the windows down, discovering a new part of yourself along the way.
"It's just been a dream to coalesce all of my life experience in the zany world of being a rock star, which I really do say now, I didn't say that," laughs Potter. "I was like, 'Yeah, I'm a musician. I'm an entertainer, I'm a songwriter and storyteller.' Fuck that. I'm a fucking rock star."
Slideshow
Everything we saw at Grace Potter's intimate set at the Dr. Phillips Center’s Frontyard Festival
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