Grace Potter & The Nocturnals

Singer, songwriter, and Hammond B-3 player <a href="spotify:artist:1PJVVIeS5Wu0wbZDhtC0Ht">Grace Potter</a> grew up in Waitsfield, Vermont, where she began playing piano at the age of seven; informed by her parents' extensive collection of some 4,000 LPs, she was gigging out locally by her late teens. She met drummer Matt Burr at an open-mike session while both were attending St. Lawrence University in upstate New York in 2002, and the two formed Grace Potter & the Nocturnals. The band, by then a trio with the addition of <a href="spotify:artist:77ANYMhd434dUHdh2j9CxU">Scott Tournet</a> on guitar, recorded its homemade debut album, Original Soul, in 2004 on its own newly created <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Ragged+Company%22">Ragged Company</a> record label. Bassist Bryan Dondero joined just as the group began tracking a second homemade effort, Nothing But the Water, which was released in 2005. The album garnered a good deal of critical acclaim, thanks to its sturdy, throwback, rootsy sound and <a href="spotify:artist:1PJVVIeS5Wu0wbZDhtC0Ht">Potter</a>'s impressive vocal work, which drew comparisons to everyone from <a href="spotify:artist:4NgfOZCL9Ml67xzM0xzIvC">Janis Joplin</a> to <a href="spotify:artist:2Kx7MNY7cI1ENniW7vT30N">Norah Jones</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:60ht0hWRy1yjUDfNsLuHuP">Lucinda Williams</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:4KDyYWR7IpxZ7xrdYbKrqY">Bonnie Raitt</a>. Fiercely independent and in control of their own career, <a href="spotify:artist:1PJVVIeS5Wu0wbZDhtC0Ht">Potter</a> and the band turned down several major-label offers before signing with <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Hollywood+Records%22">Hollywood Records</a> later in 2005. <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Hollywood%22">Hollywood</a> reissued Nothing But the Water for wider distribution in 2006, and in 2007, in conjunction with <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Ragged+Company%22">Ragged Company</a>, issued This Is Somewhere, which further refined the band's classic organic sound. In 2010, after a shelved <a href="spotify:artist:1PJVVIeS5Wu0wbZDhtC0Ht">Potter</a> solo project produced by <a href="spotify:artist:4zMX9gWf1DKhvsYHUCbBF7">T-Bone Burnett</a>, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals was released. Produced by <a href="spotify:artist:68gaOq9qzXbMonnrKnN4tl">Mark Batson</a> (<a href="spotify:artist:3nFkdlSjzX9mRTtwJOzDYB">Jay-Z</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:7hJcb9fa4alzcOq3EaNPoG">Snoop Dogg</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:6vWDO969PvNqNYHIOW5v0m">Beyonce</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:3DiDSECUqqY1AuBP8qtaIa">Alicia Keys</a>), the album's more polished, sound and tighter songwriting were part of an effort by both label and group to pull out all the stops in breaking them as a charting act. The band toured incessantly, and released a live album in the U.K., a download-only live-at-the-Fillmore date, and even a Christmas EP. In the summer of 2012, they emerged with a new studio offering, The Lion the Beast the Beat. ~ Steve Leggett, Rovi