Grace Notes (2005-2024)
It took all of five minutes for me to develop a crush on Grace Potter. Her band, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals were opening for the North Mississippi Allstars at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston and my pal Steve had suggested that I check her out, “She has a great voice and is the real deal. I think you'll like her”. He was right. I arrived early, camera in hand, and found a spot at the front of the stage. Grace exuded a self confidence that was infectious. She sang, played keyboards, occasional guitar, and was the leader of the band; a tight foursome where each member had room to jam and do their own musical thing. Grace was extremely photogenic, and certainly knew how to play to both the camera and the audience. As I photographed the show I could tell that I was not the only one in the audience with a crush on her. Almost everyone else in attendence did too.
For the next ten years I would try to photograph Grace Potter and the Nocturnals whenever I had the chance. As the years passed, I watched as she grew up on stage and then began to reinvent her persona, trading in the ripped jeans and Birkenstock's of her hippie chick days for the skintight sequined dresses and gold high-heals of a rock and roll star. She began to venture out from behind the keyboards to the front of the stage, flowing and gyrating to the music more often, while singing and playing evermore guitar. As her transformation took place, I was aware that tension and changes were beginning to occur in the band. Longtime bass player Brian Dondero left, additional members were added (including second guitar player Benny Yurco), and Potter and her longtime drummer and Nocturnal founding member Matt Burr got married. In 2015, not long after original guitar player Scott Tournet quit the band, and right before the release of Grace's solo album, the Nocturnals broke up. Potter and Burr would divorce a few years later.
I lost my crush on Grace after the Nocturnals went their separate ways. She became a solo act, employing what felt to me like backup musicians. Her solo career took off to the extent that she sang the Star Spangled Banner at a New England Patriot playoff game, and also had some of her songs included on TV shows and in a Walt Disney movie. Eventually Grace left the road for awhile, got married, and become a mother.
Thirteen years after I last photographed Grace in 2011 I heard that she was bringing her Mother Road Tour to Live Nation’s MGM Music Hall in Boston. I requested and received a photo credential to photograph her one last time.
Shoulder to shoulder in the photo pit with nine other photographers, limited to photographing only the first three songs, and feeling like I was part of a corporate music experience, my mind wandered back to a happier time, when I first shot Grace at the Paradise Rock Club back in 2005. I remembered being thrilled to be there, the only one with a camera, no restrictions, at the front of the stage, and so very excited to be photographing an incredibly soulful and impressive 22 year old Grace Potter leading a band of her own that felt like family.
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