Grace Potter On Cinematic Feel Behind T Bone Burnett Produced Medicine

Rock history is littered with the fabulous tales driving the lore behind legendarily unreleased “lost” records like The Beach Boys’ SMiLE or Prince’s Black Album.

In 2008, Grace Potter entered the studio to begin work with producer T Bone Burnett, himself riding high on the success of 2000’s Oscar/Grammy-nominated, Coen Brothers-directed, satirical musical O Brother, Where Art Thou?, on which he oversaw the music, as well as the 2007 album Raising Sand, the Grammy-winning collaborative debut from Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant and bluegrass artist Alison Krauss, which he produced.

By that point, Potter had released a pair of solo albums since arriving in 2002 as well as two more alongside then backing band the Nocturnals.

But working with Burnett would prove to be a different experience, one which found her comfortable in the studio for the first time, joined by vaunted session musicians like drummer Jim Keltner (Bob Dylan), keyboard player Keefus Ciancia (Jeff Bridges, Everlast), guitarist Marc Ribot (Tom Waits, Elvis Costello) and bassist Dennis Crouch (Gregg Allman, Elton John) on what would become the album Medicine.

Known for her more raucous studio efforts, Medicine shook up the formula, delivering a more introspective affair – a batch of 12 songs which celebrate storytelling by placing Potter’s powerhouse vocal front and center. Highlighted by the magical improvisational efforts of Burnett and company which accompany her on the album, Medicine utilizes Potter’s background as a film major and director, driving narrative while displaying her full range as an artist.

But come 2010, the decision was made to shelve Medicine in favor of riding the rollicking momentum Potter had built alongside the Nocturnals. While splinters were already forming, a trio of Grammy nominations nevertheless followed – with Potter left to ponder what could’ve/should’ve been.

Storytelling inspired by a series of road trips which found her traversing the country via Route 66 (a similarly-minded, Potter-directed documentary film also remains in the works), informs her 2023 album Mother Road with the artist further embracing the artform on stage.

During a recent pair of sold out, intimate performances at Chicago’s hottest new venue Garcia’s, Potter bared her soul over the course of two radically different sets, hitting upon covers ranging anywhere from Whitney Houston to Jimmy Cliff, while creating and developing characters on stage with her audience between solo numbers delivered sparsely but passionately on either guitar or organ.

“The Garcia’s experience was… I think you caught my true form,” explained Potter during a recent phone conversation following the Chicago appearances. “That is who I really am. And I really loved and appreciated the audience and how willing they were to partake in the experience of going into the wormholes of my mind. And creating something new – on the spot, together! Because it’ll never happen that way again,” she explained of her one of a kind performances. “And, in that same way, I think that this record is just such an interesting moment in my life,” said Potter, addressing Medicine.

“Up until that point, I was under the impression that a song is a song is a song. ‘Here it is on my guitar. But now I’ll play it on the keyboard.’ That shouldn’t change much for people – but it does. It really does! And I think allowing in the artistry of people who’ve done this a lot – who have the history and the trust with a producer like T Bone – I think it revealed truths within the lyrics of the song, and even within the vocal performances, that I didn’t even know existed. Until I listened back with fresh ears.”

While several of the album’s tracks eventually found placement elsewhere, albeit in a vastly different form, today’s release of Medicine, now available on CD or vinyl and for online streaming via Hollywood Records, marks the first time fans can hear the origins of that music, as written and worked up in the studio under the guidance of T Bone Burnett 17 years ago.

Fresh off an appearance delivering “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the Kentucky Derby, ahead of a summer run in support of Chris Stapleton, I spoke with Grace Potter about the relationship between Mother Road and Medicine, working with Burnett and how the embrace of both film and music inform the often cinematic feel that drives the terrific new album. A transcript of our conversation, lightly edited for length and clarity, follows below.

“Before the Sky Falls” – Grace Potter Finds A Path Back To Medicine

Jim Ryan: You kind of spoke on stage at Garcia’s about the road trip and the introspective process that led to Mother Road. Did that experience of kind of taking stock a bit, looking back in a way, help clear a path toward or lead you back to Medicine?

Grace Potter: It did. Because I met back with all my ghosts – not to quote myself. But that’s really what it was.

I had long conversations with my former self. And the versions of me that felt guarded – or like I wasn’t safe to explore my own agency and advocate for what I believe in as an artist. And the process of working with T Bone really opened that door for me – but then it was promptly shut. Again.

So, I think it was an interesting revelation to have, years and years later, that there was this treasure just waiting – and how unfair it really was to not share that with the world. Because I have had so many opportunities to share music that the world has never heard. Medicine is not the only unheard music that I’ve been sitting on. And I really wondered why? I’ve been asking myself that question, especially with the release of Medicine. There are entire other albums worth of music, that maybe weren’t recorded quite so masterfully as the T Bone record but that are songs that need to be reconsidered.

So, as I’ve been preparing to embark on the next chapter of the Mother Road journey, Medicine felt like a really important sort of lost piece of luggage finally returned on the conveyor belt of my brain.

Ryan: I was listening to Mother Road again this morning and storytelling really impacts and informs that record. But it’s there on Medicine too. There were definitely themes emerging. Does it feel like sort of an appropriate follow up, in a weird way, despite everything in between?

Potter: Absolutely. Because Mother Road is about digging into my history. And this is the history. It’s like, “Remember that thing that I was talking about? Here it is.”

I was burdened by this record not coming out. And it was one of the many pieces of baggage that I didn’t quite understand what had happened – and I didn’t really want to go back. I’m such a forward-minded person. As an artist, we are impulsive. And we’re always excited about the newest, hottest idea that we’ve just had. But, oftentimes, the newest idea is not the best idea.

I have this pair of glasses that I love more than any other pair. And I remember when I got them, just feeling them on my face, it was like, “These are the glasses I have always worn.” Maybe even from another lifetime. Every bit of the pressure point of where the glasses sat on my face, the weight of the lenses and plastic, the way the sun feels when it goes through the frame and kind of refracts off my eyeball? It is the pair I always go back to. And, of course, the lenses are scratched to s–t. I gotta replace the lenses. But it doesn’t matter.

There’s just a feeling to it of being true to yourself and being as vigilant as possible when it comes to things that feel and are good. It’s one thing just to chase the next good feeling. But, when you sit with the uncomfortable feeling, sometimes, I think there’s a glow and it works: there can be an important lesson to be learned from going back through the uncomfortable moments and arriving at the most comfortable that you could possibly be.

And I have that memory from making Medicine: I was incredibly comfortable. For the first time ever in the studio, I was comfortable.

Ryan: I didn’t realize you were a film major and a director. Obviously, T Bone has worked a bit in that world as well. At Garcia’s, you were very much engaging in character development on stage. And suddenly it all made sense – because this album takes on a cinematic feel. Whether it’s a songwriter, a screenwriter, a poet or anyone else, who are some favorite storytellers of yours?

Potter: Certainly the Coen Brothers jump right out – right off the page. But I think it’s really anybody who explores the absurd.

Oliver Stone is another huge inspiration. David Lynch. I absolutely adore Catherine Hardwicke (and I think that she did an amazing job with the Twilight series – wandering into somebody else’s story, which I always think is a really hard thing to do). Reed Morano is another amazing female director who also is a cinematographer.

Those journeys that you go on with a Scorsese or a Tarantino – where their aesthetic, very much like T Bone, is the thing you are signing up for. Before you watch the movie – before you even consider the story or the premise or the log line – you’re already in their world. Wes Anderson certainly has created his own world so beautifully, so many times over.

But it’s a feeling that you’re chasing. And it’s so close to music. When I put on Linda Ronstadt or I put on The Band or Billie Holiday or Les Baxter, I know that what I’m really hunting down is the memory of the last time I heard it. And I think that this record – because it sat in time and was not heard – there are so many missing memories that people are going to get to experience.

And I think there will be a bit of déjà vu. Because there’s a lot of familiarity with the songs. But the approach and the treatment of these songs has so shifted from what people know – and yet it’s so familiar. Because we have the aesthetic of T Bone. You have the comfort of already knowing what my voice sounds like. But pretty much everything else has been reimagined.

It’s almost like a completely different movie plot. Even though the songs are the same.

“Medicine” – Grace Potter Explores Dichotomy In the Studio With T Bone Burnett

Ryan: Well, with T Bone comes players like Jim Keltner and Keefus Ciancia. Nothing against any of the musicians you’ve worked with but what was it like working with that particular group?

Potter: Keefus. He’s an imagineer. There’s people that create these worlds. Like when you’re at Disneyland and you’re at the Animal Kingdom and suddenly you go from Morocco to Tibet. And somebody has sat down and thought about everything – right down to how many rows of palm trees need to be planted behind the set piece. And what genomes of palm trees need to shift from one to another to make you feel like you’re moving from Northern Africa through all of these other wild worlds before ultimately ending up in the Himalayas. That’s what Keefus does.

And I think that with Jim, he just knew. It’s like he had read the script of Medicine and got the movie – got the plot and was working with a director like T Bone, whose aesthetic was so reliable and so profoundly connected to his style of playing that there was just so little push and pull.

It was just very organic. It was like being in an ocean that had always been there.

Ryan: How much improv was there on this record? I feel like that’s such an underrated life and music concept these days. But I felt like I was hearing it…

Potter: A lot. Absolutely. Notice how all of the songs don’t ever really want to end. There are very few songs that actually had an ending. That’s because we didn’t want to stop playing. And the improvisation was always there.

Especially because I had come from the jam band scene. And T Bone was curious about that. There was a lot of, “Well, OK – let’s just keep playing…” Or, “At the beginning of the song, let’s not play right away. Let’s not all start playing together. Let’s let Keefus or Jim start this song. Don’t come in right away, just wait. And you’ll know. You’ll know when it’s time.” He wasn’t standing in the window pointing going, “And, scene!”

And you could really feel that organic nature. Because, if you listen to it – and you have this understanding of how the song formula is typically approached – that was all thrown the f–k out the window.

Ryan: It was interesting too hearing the horns and backing vocals. There were times Medicine sounded to me like an old Stax soul recording. How did you go about incorporating those elements?

Potter: That was really fun. It was like in post – when you’re on a film set and suddenly you’re in this position of like, “Imagine: this is a green screen today – but tomorrow it’s going to be an entire, beautifully decorated hotel. Or a back alleyway of a film noir.”

With the horn sections, T Bone had an arranger that would come into the studio just to pop in and check in on things – but wasn’t present. So, it’s not like the horns were in the room with us. And I was almost like an actor, coming to the premiere of the movie not knowing. “OK, how did that green screen end up?” With the horns and the backing vocals, I wasn’t there when they tracked those.

But, again, I think that the thing that truly solidified the collaboration between T Bone and I was trust. That was what we had with one another. There was a lot of trust. And a lot of free falling toward a goal that I 100% understood, Jim 100% understood, Marc understood, Dennis understood and Keefus understood.

And, when the horn players and the arranger finally presented what had come of it, it was actually what I had pictured and heard in my brain even while I was in the studio tracking it raw.

Ryan: How did dreaming kind of impact the title track or manifest itself during “Medicine?”

Potter: I like telling stories about characters that are not me – and, yet, by the end of the song, it turns out it is me.

”Ah Mary,” all of the songs from my early career. “Big White Gate.” “Apologies,” which is sort of told from the perspective of the man – but is also certainly my narrative. “Release,” which is this sort of pushing and pulling and letting go – while also holding on tightly (which is portrayed beautifully in the music video where I am two people who have split apart from one another: one who is not ready to let go and one who is 100% taking that leap and ripping all of the ties that bind away). All through my song catalog, you can hear that journey.

But I believe that “Medicine” was one of the very first explorations into that for me – where I was meeting someone who was seemingly defiantly against me and at odds with me – but was also me. It was an important piece of songwriting.

And that’s why I’ve performed it almost every night I’ve been on stage. I was just at setlist.fm doing a podcast thing and they showed me my stats. Which, by the way, I apparently am the #1 stat holder of “only played once” songs. It was pages and pages and pages of one time only songs. And, I have to say, a bunch of them were from Garcia’s! We covered a lot of ground in those two nights!

But, to answer your question, the song “Medicine” means so much to me because it was, I think, a defining – it was sort of the cannon from which a huge amount of my songwriting inspiration has come from since – all the way through Mother Road and into the future for sure.

“Goodbye Kiss” – Subconscious Optimism As Grace Potter’s Medicine Finds Release

Ryan: “That Phone” and “Make You Cry” both kind of carry this triumphant spirit. At least that’s what I heard. And there’s a real sense of optimism that kind of shines through the album generally. In strange times like these, I kind of appreciate that sentiment – even if the songs were written 15 years ago. But was it important to strike an optimistic chord?

Potter: I think it was actually a subconscious presence within me.

With my band at the time, I was pretty frustrated with the desire to break away and find my own independent voice – but the resistance that was meeting me at every turn. And this sense of feeling trapped but not wanting to be a victim. And it’s similar with the song “Keepsake” from The Lion the Beast the Beat. Or “Runaway.” There’s all of these songs where I’m defiantly positive, you know? Or what my therapist might refer to as “toxic positivity.” Because there’s a part of me that always wants to see the good in not just myself – but in every character of the plot. It’s like what’s the point of placing blame when it could very well be that I am the product of my own doing?

But, also, these actions that we take are directly connected to our hearts. Maybe not our brains – but certainly our hearts. And that those actions – and the consequences – are something that I’m ready to face and willing to face. Because not facing them just basically means you’re living in this fantasy. So, I think there’s something, like you said, that’s sort of ecstatic about the freedom that I forged for myself in songs like those. And, I think, sometimes, just looking back to that record – and thinking about what my life was like and what the dynamic was in my personal life with the band at that point – it really rings true.

I was just trying to write sort of a breakup song – like a projection of somebody else’s life. But it was certainly not that. It was obviously coming straight from the source and from my own experience.

Ryan: So, an album like this that is a bit introspective… Taking the time in between and revisiting it like this all of these years later, what do you learn during that process?

Potter: I learned so much about how different songs can become from one treatment to another. How incredibly effective it can be to bring new membership into a band and into a recording space – how everybody brings something to the table. And that everyone’s life experiences – and the way that a song and the lyrics of that song hit them – is gonna change the way that the world perceives it.

Because, up until that point, I was under the impression that a song is a song is a song. “Here it is on my guitar. But now I’ll play it on the keyboard.” That shouldn’t change much for people – but it does. It really does! And I think allowing in the artistry of people who’ve done this a lot – who have the history and the trust with a producer like T Bone – I think it revealed truths within the lyrics of the song, and even within the vocal performances, that I didn’t even know existed. Until I listened back with fresh ears.

I hadn’t listened to the record in over 15 years when we first got on the phone with Disney and said, “Hey! What do you think?” They were almost like, “Well… what do you think?” And then T Bone listened to it like, “Oh my god, yeah. Wow. This is still exactly the thing.”

But it feels different somehow because of the time that has lapsed. And I think that’s a really valuable thing. And something very rare to find in the music industry today.