Grace Potter Releases New Album Daylight on October 25th

“I’ve always aimed to write songs from a universal perspective; so that anyone who heard my music could relate, but that actually made it harder for me to take ownership of my own perspective. These songs were written so I could process – and be accountable for – my own life experience,” Potter says. “I had just pulled the ripcord on my whole life. It was an incredibly jarring, private experience. When the dust settled a bit, the last thing I wanted to do was tell the whole world about it through song. It was a very gradual process of re-framing music and its purpose in my life. So, when I finally started writing songs again – it had to be for myself and myself alone.”

On the powerful album-opener and first single “Love Is Love,” Potter fully surrenders as her voice shifts from fragile to soaring. It was the first track written for Daylight and she found the process so unsettling, it temporarily put her off from attempting any further self-examination in song. “‘Love Is Love’ is so confessional, it was terrifying. After we recorded the demo, I had no desire to keep on writing because the feelings were still too raw,” she says. “I was scared to dig any deeper.”

Throughout Daylight, Potter imbues her songs with equal parts aching vulnerability and unapologetic self-possession. In many ways, the stark piano balled “Release” is the album’s centerpiece. Sorrowful but redemptive, its resolution lies in a lyric by co-writer Mike Busbee (“I hope that someday/The sun will shine again/And you’ll release me too”).

While much of the new album mirrors the emotional chaos of her recent past, Daylight also channels a soulful wonder on songs like “Every Heartbeat,” an acoustic-guitar-laced serenade for Valentine and their infant son, Sagan. And on “Desire,” Daylight drifts into an impulsively playful mood, serving up a sweet celebration of unabashed lust.

Described by Spin as “one of the greatest living voices in rock today,” Grace Potter has not only played every major music festival from Coachella and Lollapalooza to Bonnaroo and Rock in Rio, she’s created her own thriving music festival, Burlington’s Grand Point North. Additionally, she’s shared a stage with artists such as The Rolling Stones, Willie Nelson, Robert Plant, the Allman Brothers, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, Mavis Staples, and The Roots to name just a few. Potter has also collaborated with the Flaming Lips for a Tim Burton film, written and produced music for film and TV and recorded two GRAMMY-nominated, multiplatinum singles with her friend Kenny Chesney.

Having endured a painful divorce and the breakup of her band- as well as far more joyful events like a new marriage and the birth of her first child, Grace Potter reached for Daylight and delivered a commanding statement of power and purpose.