Grace Potter discusses the 'lost' soulful album ‘Medicine' and Otis Redding

Yahoo

02-06-2025

Grace Potter discusses the 'lost' soulful album 'Medicine' and Otis Redding originally appeared on Goldmine.
In 2008, Grammy nominee Grace Potter recorded the solo album Medicine in Los Angeles, produced by T Bone Burnett, but its release was sidelined by the commitment to her group Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. On May 30, the album was finally released by Hollywood Records. Also last month, close to 18 million people watched the Kentucky Derby on NBC and Peacock, the largest viewership since 1989, and Potter kicked off the race with a stunning look and equally classy performance of the national anthem, stretching lyrics and notes with emphasis. That compelling delivery style is heard throughout Medicine. Goldmine spoke with Potter about songs from the album, plus we also kick off Black Music Month by discussing the inspiration of Otis Redding with her, and we'll continue our Black Music Month coverage in the coming weeks with the music of Sam Cooke, The Flirtations and The Chiffons.
GOLDMINE: Welcome back to Goldmine and congratulations on the new album. You are a family favorite with a connection; both you and my daughter Brianna were born in the spring of 1983. She recently shared your version of Neil Young's 'Cortez the Killer' with me. Like songs on your new album, you gave it such a soulfully dramatic treatment. Speaking of soul, I hear an underlying tone of Otis Redding in your work. I was reminded of his version of 'That's How Strong My Love Is,' which was originally released as an A side, but was deemed to be the flip side, after 'Mr. Pitiful,' the original flip side of the single, outperformed it on radio.
GRACE POTTER: Otis' music feels like home to me. As I imagine Brianna growing up in a house of music with you and your wife, my parents had a great record collection. I remember when I heard Otis Redding's voice for the first time. I thought that if I was a guy, that is what my voice would sound like. I was fully aware that the timbre of my voice did not match his, and I couldn't aspire to it, so I just had to sit back and enjoy it, but there was a fire and a humanity in his voice that is spine tingling and you don't know why. There were animal instincts and no phobia in sharing his emotions. It doesn't feel like there are any walls between you and what came out of his soul.
Otis Redding
Fabulous Flip Side: That's How Strong My Love Is
A side: Mr. Pitiful
Billboard Hot 100 debut of 'Mr. Pitiful': February 20, 1965 ('That's How Strong My Love Is' debuted three weeks prior)
Peak position: No. 41 for 'Mr. Pitiful' and No. 74 for 'That's How Strong My Love Is'
Volt V-124
'I remember when I heard Otis Redding's voice for the first time. I thought that if I was a guy, that is what my voice would sound like. I was fully aware that the timbre of my voice did not match his, and I couldn't aspire to it, so I just had to sit back and enjoy it, but there was a fire and a humanity in his voice that is spine tingling and you don't know why. There were animal instincts and no phobia in sharing his emotions. It doesn't feel like there are any walls between you and what came out of his soul.' – Grace Potter
GM: 'Money' is very soulful. There are many instruments, trumpet, sax, trombone, plus background vocals, on the recording of this song that you co-wrote with David Poe.
GP: Working with David was one of my favorite co-writing experiences that I had up to that point because he was such a New Yorker and I had never really hung out with true New Yorkers. His personality was what I envisioned in a college roommate, had I gone to school there, lived in a loft, reading Nietzsche, and being dead broke. I had romanticized that lifestyle, and he had lived it. As we wrote 'Money,' he told me, 'I lived that lifestyle, and I promise you that having no money and being broke is not romantic. The desperation can lead to some amazing art, but if you weren't starving, and you had a full stomach, maybe the lyrics would be better.'
GM: Speaking of lyrics, yours are captivating on 'Colors,' describing 'clocks spinning backwards.'
GP: I wanted to share with the listeners what it would be like to be on the inside of my head. At a young age I would observe the world around me and I thought that if the clocks spun the other way maybe my life would make better sense to me. I felt like I was part of another place and time versus what I saw around me. The more I existed on the planet, the younger I felt I was becoming. I was quite nonverbal as a child and later found my medium for communication through my lyrics. T Bone Burnett, as a producer, created the wonderful soundscape that was already the landscape in my mind for 'Colors.'
GM: Regarding a different place and time, 'Colors' reminded me of Percy Sledge's '60s recordings, and with 'That Phone,' I feel it has the edge of Dusty Springfield's classic Dusty in Memphis album with Marc Ribot's guitar and the sax sounds from four players. Adding to that Southern sound, you give it some Wynonna Judd sass.
GP: I'll take it! I love those combinations because I was just realizing at that time that country music was basically soul and R&B with a banjo and a fiddle. The cages and categories of genres are not for me. This was an opportunity to be a genre bender. Soul, R&B, and blues is a deep well to pull from, find a voice, and stand up strong. Every day, when we were in the studio with T Bone, Marc would switch guitars three or four times per song trying to pin down the sound.
GM: In 2007, T Bone produced the Grammy winning album Raising Sand for Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. I saw them and T Bone perform at Lake Tahoe in June of the following year. Robert spoke on stage about the underlying rhythmic sound of the songs, which I also hear on 'Losing You.'
GP: Yes, that T Bone sound is very much heard on 'Losing You' and the title song 'Medicine.' I have described it as tribal, but I think it is biological. The beat of the drum matches our heart. We call it tribal because there are places in the world where music did not need to evolve beyond that. I have heard bands taking that African influence with lyrics woven like a web around those sounds, making for such a beautiful combination, and one that I had never had an opportunity to sing over until that point. T Bone brought his experience with Robert and Alison to the session, trying to make the song sound as primal as possible. What I learned from T Bone then was also reflected in future records that I made.
GM: Drums are a key part of that sound. Growing up, while listening to albums, I would read the credits like the post-Beatles recordings, John Lennon's Imagine and George Harrison's The Concert for Bangladesh, both from 1971, and see the name Jim Keltner on drums, who certainly comes through on 'Losing You.'
GP: Other than The Band's Levon Helm, the biggest drum influence in my experience as a songwriter is Jim, the drummer that I hear in my head when I am writing a song that I know is going to feature drums. All my drummers would give you a similar list of influences: Led Zeppelin's John Bonham, The Band's Levon Helm, and Jim Keltner. For studio recordings, Jim is more than a pilot of the airplane. He is the shipbuilder and then he's steering the ship. He is speaking with the tempo, engaging with it, like the thermal pressure that might lift you and bring you back down if you were in a glider airplane. I felt like a glider flying over the band the whole time that I was in their capable hands.
GM: When I played Brianna 'To Shore,' she said your delivery reminded her of another Grace, Grace Slick, along with Jim Morrison's poetry with The Doors, which may explain why this seven-minute dramatic image filled piece is my favorite song on the album.
GP: I was into Ry Cooder and his approach to the Paris, Texas soundtrack. At this time in my life, I was actively pursuing scoring films. I have always been a multi-denominational songwriter. The song is just the medium that I am choosing for that moment. That song is an expression of my filmmaking history. I was a film major at Sarah Lawrence College and with this song it comes to life, which is why the lyrics are so vivid. There is a sinking boat but also an opportunity to save yourself and not be dragged under by it. This allowed the band to take any number of liberties because I didn't need to anchor it with the lyrics, the words would stay on top of the water, and I think the band became the ocean. There is a mysticism to that track and it becomes a movie in a song.
GM: I look forward to having 'To Shore' in my Fabulous 100 Songs of 2025 list, now that the album has finally been released.
GP: In 2008, I was upset when it wasn't released. It was gut-wrenching to work so hard and bond with T Bone and the musicians. It had a lot to do with the forward momentum of my band, The Nocturnals, at the time and my blind loyalty to that, to make sure I didn't do the whole Big Brother & the Holding Company – Janis Joplin goes solo thing, because it was built into the band's atmosphere that I would be unflinchingly loyal, but behind the scenes, making that solo album was exactly what I was ready to do, yet the loneliness of being a solo artist didn't appeal to me.
GM: You carried on with The Nocturnals and 2012's The Lion The Beast The Beat included your Top 100 single 'Stars,' which my wife Donna and I heard being performed on this season of The Voice by Naomi Soleil on Michael Buble's team. You received a lot of praise from fellow coach Adam Levine.
GP: My guitarist, Indya Bratton, sent me that link. Leave it to my Generation Z girl to let me know what's going on. I wrote 'Stars' in an emotional time in my life when I lost one of my dearest friends. It has surprised me how much this has resonated with so many people, and never misinterpreted, always hitting in the same place in people's hearts.
GM: You have touched many hearts and have helped a lot of people. In 2015, you received the ASCAP Harry Chapin Vanguard Award, carrying on his mission of fighting world hunger, also a long-time passion of Donna's, and inspiring positive change and fostering social justice. On June 4, Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo will follow in your footsteps and receive the annual award.
GP: It's been said that I am a big walking around, breathing, singing heart. When I have even a moment of time where I can share something that transforms somebody's life, raising money, and doing good, it is the least difficult decision to make, and is the least that I can do. Whenever those opportunities arise, I find myself begging for more. Music for me has been a bit of a public service. When I was young, people would always ask me to sing to cheer someone up. I can provide that for others in a way I still don't understand. My time is short on this planet, and I want to do as much as I possibly can to contribute. I am so honored that you took the time to have me in your Goldmine series and to share your thoughts. I am impressed and blown away by the associations that you made. No one has ever drawn those threads together quite as accurately as you did and I appreciate it. Thank you so much.
Related link:
gracepotter.com including upcoming shows with Johnnyswim and Chris Stapleton
Fabulous Flip Sides is in its eleventh year
goldminemag.com/columns/fabulous-flip-sides
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This story was originally reported by Goldmine on Jun 2, 2025, where it first appeared.