Grace Potter at The Sound in Del Mar, CA
Grace Potter wound up the winter leg of her Mother Road tour in typical Grace Potter fashion, in a great high-energy show! She has shared a good portion of the tour with Brittney Spencer opening for her but tonight, the final night, was all Grace. I have been fortunate enough to see Potter in concert both as a solo artist and with her former band The Nocturnals and each show is different. She never disappoints no matter who is backing her up, and she always gets top-notch musicians behind her on stage. There is no doubt, however, who the people come to see.
The set for the Mother Road show looks like a kitschy scene right from Route 66. There are neon light cacti, old gas pumps and even Potter’s piano is decorated to look like an old car. Unfortunately, for most of the show the set was barely visible through the fog machines used. But we weren’t here for the cool set, we were here for the music. Grace covered tunes from the new album and her other solo albums as well as some from Grace Potter and the Nocturnals albums.
The setlist included favorites from the Nocturnals like “Ah Mary,” “Treat Me Right,” “The Lion and the Beast,” and “Stop the Bus.” But Potter is on tour to promote her fifth solo studio album Mother Road. This album, one of her best, in my opinion, was inspired by multiple cross county road trips between her current home in Topanga Canyon, CA and her native state of Vermont. You can definitely feel a shift in Potter’s songwriting towards a more Americana vibe, but it’s still full of lots of good old fashioned rock and roll. I can imagine cruising along Route 66 on the open road, convertible top down, and this album blasting from the speakers.
Potter sang the title track “Mother Road” along with “Lady Vagabond,” and one of my favorites the Motown sounding “Ready, Set,Go.” She closed out the show with her beautiful ballad “Stars” and her grand finale was the tune that gets everyone up and dancing: “Paris (Ooh La La).”
Potter will pick up the tour in Tampa Florida at the Tampa Bay Blues Festival on April 12th. But first she’s going on a cruise, the “Keeping the Blues Alive” cruise from March 18-22. She’s also hitting the road with Chris Stapleton. A Grace Potter show is always fun no matter where or who she is playing with.
Check her out: https://www.gracepotter.com
Enjoy our previous coverage here: Show Review: Grace Potter at the Anthem with Brittney Spencer Opening
Wow,she is great!!