One of my favorite sensations in this life is the anthropological joy I get from stumbling upon old stuff I completely forgot that I owned.
Just a few weeks ago, while doing some very overdue housecleaning, I discovered that at some point I’d purchased the vinyl of the “Moonlighting” soundtrack. While I barely recall anything about the Bruce Willis-led TV show, that Al Jarreau theme song has always been a guilty pleasure of mine, which clearly led me to purchase the whole record — though I’ll be damned if I can recall when or where. While I still haven’t listened to the rest of the record — lots of Willis singing white-guy blues … I’m good — I delighted in listening to that track like I’d unearthed it from the ruins.
If you’re singer-songwriter, pop star and all-around musical badass Grace Potter, that happens to you, too. Only, instead of finding a discarded bargain-bin purchase, it’s an entire roots record you cut with legendary producer T Bone Burnett in 2008.
OK, maybe Potter didn’t forget that she was sitting on the record, as much as she realized the time had finally come to release it. And that’s exactly what she’s doing, dropping her “new” 17-year-old album this Friday, May 30, when Medicine comes out on Hollywood Records.
All of which is great! But T Bone Burnett is one of the most renowned producers in music. That was especially so in 2008, coming off the soundtracks for films such as O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Walk the Line, as well as Raising Sand, the 2007 Grammy Award-winning duet album with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. Which raises the question: Why shelve an album produced by such a big name?
“Well, that’s kind of complicated,” Potter told me, citing “record company concerns and packaging” — the latter not of the album but the singer herself. “The label had put a lot of energy into building my brand at the time,” she said.
If you recall, back then Potter was being aggressively marketed as a fiery rock star, straddling the edge of roots and pop. Medicine is very much a T Bone Burnett album, full of rustic overtones, hints of Americana and a much less aggressive tone. A so-called “prestige” record that didn’t feature the Nocturnals felt risky to the label. And Potter was feeling pressure from other avenues as well.
“At that point, I was fiercely loyal to the Nocturnals,” she recalled. “I was all about band, band, band. If there was a magazine cover, I wanted us all on it. I was always worried about it being ‘we,’ not ‘me.'”
The Nocturnals weren’t enthusiastic about Potter going off on her own to make a record with Burnett. According to Potter, the band was already having growing pains, and the solo record caused a fair amount of anxiety within the group. On top of that, Burnett had a hard rule in the studio: no label reps or management around.
“Once the label people finally got a chance to hear what T Bone and I were creating, there were all these murmurs that it was too ‘prestige’ rather than radio-aiming,” Potter said. “Their view was the band and I had all this momentum as a rock band. Why not just get back to that instead of stepping into dark and mysterious woods?”
So Medicine was put aside. Yet Potter never totally moved on from what she describes as her favorite studio experience of her career.
“Working with T Bone was unreal … The record brought me to a new understanding of the diversity of musicality I have within me,” she said. “It showed me I had so much to share beyond the very male-based, ’70s-throwback, rock-and-roll thing I had been known for.”
Listening to the advance singles from Medicine shows the transformation Burnett wrought on Potter’s sound. The sultry, soulful “Oasis” is unlike anything she’s released before. The record was cut with Burnett’s wrecking crew of session musicians, including legendary drummer Jim Keltner. Gone is the fuzz and stomp of early Nocturnals and the good-time aggression of Potter’s vocal delivery from that era, smoothed out and turned into the soaring voice of a siren. Even on rockier tracks such as “Losing You,” Burnett conjured a distinctive, almost Americana edge.
So why now? What prompted Potter to finally release a killer record she’s been sitting on for almost two decades? Well, for one, she said she needed some space from the experience to properly understand what she had on her hands.
“This isn’t like an archival discovery; it was very intentional,” Potter asserted. “The memories of writing and recording these songs has faded. The upside of that is I get to be a listener for once, for the first time in my career. I get to experience these songs in a fresh way.”
Potter, who splits her time between Vermont and California, plans to tour behind Medicine — a little. She’ll join country superstar Chris Stapleton for a run on his All-American Road Show tour, including two nights at Madison Square Garden in New York City in July.
When it comes to live music though, her thoughts are focused more locally. Though the lineup and dates have yet to be announced, Potter confirms that her annual Burlington music fest, Grand Point North, will return in 2025 — this time under the banner of the Grand Point Foundation, the nonprofit she launched to support the arts in her home state.
“One of the things closest to my heart right now is this initiative to keep stages in Vermont alive and full, and Grand Point North is a big part of that,” the Waitsfield native said. She added that while Higher Ground is still a partner, “My foundation is running the ship now, which means we don’t have to focus so much on the bottom line.
“I’ve never made any money at a Grand Point North, but that’s OK,” she continued. “It’s not why I’m doing it and never has been.”
The festival will cap off a busy summer for Potter, who says she’s working on several films as a writer and producer, as well as continuing her busy slate of session gigs, working with the likes of Gwen Stefani. Hopefully it won’t get so busy she “forgets” she recorded an entire album again, but who knows? Maybe we’ll get her EDM album in 2042.
This article appears in May 28 – Jun 3, 2025.
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!