by Whitne y Spive y
Grace Potter a rock ‘n’ roll extravaganza at The Lensic
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santafeanNOW.com
“Music is a conversation between the fan and the artist,” Potter says. The Vermont-native performs at The Lensic on August 7 with Rayland Baxter.
the moment.” Potter performs with her band—usually 7 or 8 people, many of them Nocturnals—and then whatever friends she can round up and convince to get on stage. “It’s a full two-and-some-odd hour experience, an extravaganza of sorts,” she says. “It is a rock ‘n’ roll show. It’s very dynamic, it’s passionate, and I dance a lot.” Which feels good after all that studio time. “When you’re a finicky, psychotic artist pulling out your hair and driving yourself crazy for a year and a half, you don’t know what the results are going to be,” Potter says. “All you know is that you have to keep exploring; my one job in life is to continue my growth and never ever settle for what’s comfortable. Hopefully my instincts will pay off.” Grace Potter with Rayland Baxter, August 7, 7:30 pm, $37–$49, The Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W San Francisco, ticketssantafe.org
JOSH REED
SINGER GRACE POTTER is walking along the Niagara River en route to Niagara Falls. Tonight she’ll play a show on Lewiston, New York, but right now, she’s finishing up a series of phone interviews with various members of the media. “You’re very lucky because you’re the last one,” she says. “You’re getting the fully versed me.” And so I’m not surprised when a minute later she says, “we’re going to be in Santa Fe soon, which is super fucking exciting.” But the August 7 show at The Lensic is exciting for Potter not just because it’s at Santa Fe’s most historic theater; the 32-year-old rock ‘n’ roller from Vermont spent much of her childhood in north-central New Mexico. “My grandparents lived in Albuquerque for the last 40 years of their lives,” she explains, noting that her grandfather, Morgan Sparks, was “an inventor and a bit of a mad scientist” and the head of Sandia Labs from 1972–1981. “Santa Fe was their vacation spot, their special place,” she continues. “So although I won’t be visiting their [Albuquerque] gravesite, I will be doing a little meditation for Madre and Padre in their favorite spot.” She’ll also be taking requests on Friday night. “We won’t miss out on any of the songs that people want,” she says. “Even if somebody shouts out a song in the middle of a show, I usually try to get around to playing it because these people—they bought tickets, they got babysitters, or dogsitters, or whatever—they deserve to hear the songs they want to hear.” Some of those songs will be from Potter’s new solo album, Midnight, which comes out at—surprise!— midnight on August 14. Potter, who finds being in the studio “a bummer,” calls the 12-song compilation a labor of love. “It’s like neuroscience,” she says. “You need to create something that can be repeated over and over again and will still inspire emotion; when you’re making a record, it has to happen the same way every time, and it has to be shit hot.” That’s a contrast from Potter’s live shows, which vary from night to night and are “all about being in