Grace Potter: Daylight
“I’m through the endless fights, the pain, and all the sorrow// I’m keeping the love inside my heart for someone new.” ~ Repossession, Daylight ~
While four years doesn’t seem like a long time in hindsight, that’s how long it has been since Grace Potter’s first solo album, Midnight, 2015, was released. It seems the four-year hiatus allowed Grace to address the pain of her marriage dissolution, and gave her time to address her life as she moved through acceptance, letting go, letting in love by embracing a new season of life with her husband, producer Eric Valentine (Keith Urban, Gwen Stefani, Maroon 5) and her role as a mother. Her sophomore solo album, Daylight, released on October 25, is her first with West Coast, Fantasy Records. Daylight allows us to hear and feel her recent life journey, the sabbatical from her music caused by her growing pains, and how she has revealed it to us through her songs. She puts her story out there as she sings the most vulnerable lyrics with exposed, raw emotion. Each song is a stepping stone to who and where she is today.
Photo Courtesy of Pamela Neal
From start to finish, the album is an outline to this chapter of life, which has led to her current place of joy. Not a unique situation in society today, however, her amazing songwriting abilities full of creative, emotional delivery of words, chords and tunes will cause you to pause. I did so myself as I watched her set at Bourbon & Beyond, and was truly moved by her performance there. She played several songs from Daylight, and after seeing her powerful live show that truly resonated with me, it is not a surprise they chose a live set-up in studio for this recording. The result of this production delivered a solid piece that is rarely captured in a normal studio recording session. Her songs bring to mind certain past, present and inevitably future relationships of all kinds. When you listen, you may be reminded about how words and actions matter, and while situations may not turn out as intended, you will be okay as long as you follow your heart. They’re the type of songs you can’t write, let alone give delivery with purpose, unless you have actually lived it.
The supporting musicians combined with her vocals match the tone of each song. It’s not surprising to see longtime collaborators, Benny Yurco and Matt Musty, contribute guitar and drums respectively on Daylight, with Benmont Tench and Larry Goldings adding keys and Lucius on background vocals.
The first track, “Love is Love,” co-written with Mike Busbee (Pink, Maren Morris) wastes no time engaging us in her life. When you hear the lead-in line of confession, “I don’t care about pride/ I don’t care I wanna call you/ I don’t care I’ve gone off the rails, I’m crazy for ya” that jumps into the chorus with a crescendo of melodic emotion, it may be time to stop what you are doing and listen a little closer to her powerful lyrics.
“Shout It Out” starts with an instant visual of a moment, and it is hard to know if it’s fiction or non-fiction. “I swear I heard you say, I Love You/ as I rolled my suitcase down the hall/ but then again it might have been the wheels inside my mind/ trying to make sense of it all” then leading into “you don’t talk about forgiveness/ never spoke about your pain/ come to think of it my darling/ never said much of anything/ I can see it in your eyes, there’s so much you need to say.” The piano and organ on this track take you on a roller coaster ride of feelings.
The acapella intro on ”Repossession” sucks you in immediately, with a “Patsy Cline-esque" phrasing, vocals/harmonies and instrumental sound where you have to remind yourself that this is a modern song. Nothing like brushes on drums, combined with a sleepy rhythm to make it a great little honky tonk ballad. The story behind this song, as Potter explains it, “We were driving through the Southwest; we stopped at a pawn shop and bought this busted old guitar with a missing string, dragged it out to these vast sand dunes and just started playing,” Potter recalls in revealing the song’s origins. “We’d been listening to a lot of classic country and AM radio on the road trip. These heart-wrenching songs spoke directly to what we were going through. And even though they were recorded over 50 years ago, it felt like they’d been reading my diary. So when we sat down to write, ‘Repossession’ just happened. Like it had always been there, just waiting for someone to show up and claim it.
Title song, “Daylight,” brings to mind the style of Melissa Etheridge, and lets you know you are on the other side of the darkness. At the front, the hard-hitting drums move into a slower tempo and the guitar chords into the grooving rhythm, combined with the statement “freedom comes at a cost/ it’s time to let go of what I lost/ Run away with the one I love/ Find a place in the canyon sun/ We’re gonna find a place in the canyon/ Start a new life/ Where I’m standing/ I’m still waiting let the daylight come/ Daylight, come.” This one will cause you to drive fast, reaching deep into your soul…
Whether midnight or daylight, Grace Potter knows how to draw on the emotions of the moment and weave them into a poignant musical journey. Find a show to attend on her on tour or purchase her music… but whatever you do, just listen. The story Grace Potter tells through her songs is worth it.
