GRACE POTTER AND THE NOCTURNALS—Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

In a corporate radio world where pop tarts and overpowering divas dominate, it's always good to hear newer female artists who stick to a more rootsy kind of rock, one that goes back to the 1960s with such iconic figures as Janis Joplin and Bobbie Gentry (think such hits of hers as “Ode To Billie Joe” and “Fancy”), then moves to the 1970s with iconic women such as Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, and Emmylou Harris; into the 1980s with Maria McKee; the 1990s with Sheryl Crow; and, in more recent times, such alt-country/Americana artists as Lucinda Williams, Allison Moorer, and Tift Merritt. You can put Grace Potter and her group the Nocturnals into that category as well. On this, their eponymous album release of 2010, which I placed as being one of the best of that year, Grace and her band mould a lot of different influences from those artists and their various styles, which are an encyclopedia of blues and country-influenced rock and singer/songwriter from the late 1960s onward, into a totally original brew.

The tracks:
PARIS (OOH LA LA)
OASIS
MEDICINE
GOODBYE KISS
TINY LIGHT
COLORS
ONLY LOVE
MONEY
ONE SHORT NIGHT
LOW ROAD
THAT PHONE
HOT SUMMER NIGHT
THINGS I NEVER NEEDED

As lead vocalist, Grace occasionally shows not only the influence of Janis, as some reviewers here have succinctly pointed out, but even the Wilson sisters of Heart, and even Melissa Etheridge, on "Paris", "Oasis", and "Medicine", along with the blues/reggae combine on "Goodbye Kiss". Meanwhile, Bonnie's influence comes out on the blues-rockers "Money" (not to be confused with either Barrett Strong’s 1960 R&B classic of the same name, or Pink Floyd’s 1973 Dark Side Of The Moon classic), and "Low Road."

On other tracks, such as "One Short Night" and the closing "Things I Never Needed", Grace and the Nocturnals go into somewhat more country-influenced territory, but more along the lines of Linda's classic 1970s country-rock albums and those albums of Maria McKee’s, both as a solo singer and as leader of Lone Justice) of Maria McKee, rent with splashes of twangy electric guitar and surrealistic pedal steel guitar. Since these tracks are what you might very well consider “retro”-country, we are a very long way from the corporate kind of country that Carrie Underwood or Taylor Swift embody.

While it may be quite true that a lot of this album is radio-friendly, one then has to wonder why an album that is of such high quality cannot even get the most minimal of airplay on the radio, except maybe in the "AAA" or Adult Rock formats. If this were the 70s, or maybe the mid-90s, when Sheryl Crow burst onto the scene, we would likely be talking about an album that was going gangbusters on the radio and spawning one hit after another.  Sadly, it would seem that in this day and age, having a reverence for roots-rock is not a plus for a mass audience more in love with the safe “ear candy”, even though there was plenty of that as well in the 70s.  Fortunately, however, there is still a fairly robust segment of the listening public that likes this kind of music for a lot of good reasons, and for the discriminating listener who considers him or herself in that category, this eponymous album from Grace and her Nocturnals should fit that bill just right.

Recommended: Yes

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