Performed at Love for Levon – A Benefit to Save the Barn, New Jersey.
Grace Potter was probably best known, during the period in which she released her first four solo albums, as a soul-rock singer, although she dabbled on her third album “Midnight” with more electronic dance-pop sounds that did not find favour with critics. And yet, if you search her back catalogue and then listen to 2023’s “Mother Road” you can tell that the creatively restless Potter had many strings to her bow – for example, she was nominated for a Grammy and other awards for her collaborations with country superstar Kenny Chesney, some of her songs have appeared on TV soundtracks (‘ER’ and ‘Grey’s Anatomy’, ‘One Tree Hill’ and ‘Rizzoli and Isles’ to name just a few) She is also known as a fine interpreter of other people’s songs including for example Stealer’s Wheel’s often -covered ‘Stuck in the Middle with you’.
Legally blind in one eye since birth in Waitsfield, Vermont, Potter gave up university in favour of a career in music and started playing with her band The Nocturnals in 2002. Ten or so years later (after four albums, and two solo efforts) she went solo full-time, and in 2015 opened for the Rolling Stones on their Zip Code tour, and shared the stage with Robert Plant and The Allman Brothers, amongst others. A long road tour led her to ‘reframe her personal history’ and the songs on “Mother Road” were a mix of styles that were enthusiastically received by critics (8/10 from Americana UK) as an antidote to her previous albums.
Little wonder that she is invited to appear as a guest on many musical platforms and this one in question was special – the concert to Save the Barn called Love for Levon, promoted in East Rutherford, New Jersey in October 2012, the proceeds of which went towards saving the barn in Woodstock that was owned by Levon Helm (who had died earlier that year), for the benefit of his family. She chose to sing one of Dylan’s masterpieces (often ranked as one of his greatest songs), which was also recorded by The Band on ‘Music from Big Pink’ and on “The Last Waltz” in a live version. She is most usually on stage with electric guitar, but chose the organ for this song in homage to the sound of The Band. Backing her is Larry Campell with The Levon Helm Band.
